Over 2.5 Million Uzbeks Have Frozen Their Own Credit Access. Here's How to Set It Up — and Undo It

The mechanism was introduced by Law No. ЗРУ-1043 of March 4, 2025, which added a new Article 16-1 to the Law "On the Exchange of Credit Information," governing how individuals' details are entered into the registry of people barred from credit transactions. The amendments took effect on June 6, 2025.

Once the freeze is active, any credit application submitted to a financial institution connected to the credit information exchange system will automatically flag the ban. If a bank or MFI issues a loan anyway, bypassing the registry, the liability falls on the lender — not on the person whose name was used.

• The citizen submits an application to activate the freeze
• The credit bureau adds their details to the registry of people barred from credit transactions
• Banks and MFIs are required to check the registry before issuing any credit
• If a person is on the registry, their loan application is automatically rejected

my.gov.uz is the universal option, accessible from anywhere: the portal offers a service called "Establishing or Lifting a Ban on Entering into a Credit Agreement," which covers both activating and lifting the freeze. You log in through the OneID system.

Worth knowing as an additional option: the credit bureau LLC "Credit Information Analytical Center" (CIAC), operating under the name "KATM," is available both as a mobile app and as the website infokredit.uz. It only supports activating the freeze — you can't lift it that way. There's also an offline route: applying in person, passport in hand, at a public services center or at a KATM branch office, where both actions are available. The service is free either way.

• my.gov.uz (browser or mobile app) — activate and lift
• Public services center — activate and lift
• KATM credit bureau (mobile app, infokredit.uz, or an in-person branch visit) — online activation only; the branch office also handles lifting the freeze

Open my.gov.uz in your browser or through the mobile app (available on Google Play and the App Store). Log in through the OneID system — if you don't have an account yet, you can create one at id.egov.uz using your passport series and number. In the portal's search bar, type "Establishing or Lifting a Ban on Entering into a Credit Agreement" and open the service page.

Click "Get Service," then select "Activate." The system processes the request automatically and adds your details to the registry — no digital signature or in-person visit is required to confirm your identity. You can download an electronic confirmation document right after activation.

• Open my.gov.uz in a browser or through the mobile app
• Log in through OneID
• Find the service "Establishing or Lifting a Ban on Entering into a Credit Agreement"
• Click "Get Service" → "Activate"
• Download the electronic confirmation document if needed

The freeze doesn't cancel existing obligations: payments on loans, credit cards, and installment plans you already hold need to keep being made as usual — the freeze only applies to new applications. It covers nearly every official player in the credit market, since connection to the credit information exchange system is mandatory for banks and MFIs.

Loans arranged outside official financial institutions — say, borrowed from friends or private individuals — aren't covered by the freeze, because those deals never pass through the credit bureau system.

• Blocked: consumer loans from banks
• Online loans and microloans from MFIs
• Credit cards
• Installment plans from finance companies, and leasing
• Not blocked: existing loans, and loans from private individuals

To lift the freeze through my.gov.uz, open the same "Establishing or Lifting a Ban on Entering into a Credit Agreement" service and select "Deactivate." Under Article 16-1 of the Law "On the Exchange of Credit Information," an application to lift the freeze — just like an application to set it — must be entered into the registry by the credit bureau immediately upon receipt. Some earlier coverage from the service's 2025 launch cited a processing time of up to two business days for lifting the freeze; that figure doesn't match the law's explicit "immediately" wording, so the law itself is the more reliable reference point.

The law describes both setting and lifting the freeze as voluntary and free, and it sets no cap on how many times you can do either — repeated activations and deactivations aren't restricted.

Under Article 16-1 of the Law "On the Exchange of Credit Information," banks, non-bank credit organizations, and payment organizations operating as MFIs are barred from entering into a credit transaction without obtaining registry data on whether a ban applies to that person. If a lender violates this requirement and issues credit without the involvement or knowledge of someone listed in the registry, the law places liability for the legal consequences of that transaction on the lender.

Separately, the law provides for a fine of up to 5,000 base calculation units (roughly 1.875 billion sums) — but that penalty is imposed by the Central Bank on credit bureaus themselves for violations in their own operations (for example, failing to properly maintain the registry, or violating the rights of the bureau's own customers), not directly on a bank or MFI for a specific case of issuing credit in violation of someone's freeze. For banks and MFIs, the law uses a broader term — "liability for legal consequences" — without setting a fixed fine amount for this particular violation.

• Banks and MFIs must check the credit-freeze registry before issuing a loan
• Violations carry liability for the legal consequences of the transaction (Art. 16-1 of the law)
• The fine of up to 1.875 billion sums applies separately — to credit bureaus, not to banks

You can submit the application from anywhere in the world through my.gov.uz — all you need is access to OneID, which is useful if you're working abroad or on an extended trip and can't personally keep tabs on financial activity back in Uzbekistan. The same logic applies if your passport is lost or stolen: while a replacement is being issued, the freeze closes off the window for someone to take out a loan in your name.

Another group worth mentioning is people looking to protect older relatives from scammers who pose as bank staff running a "security check" on their account, as well as anyone paying down an existing loan who wants to deliberately rule out the temptation to take on a new one before the old debt is cleared.

• You live abroad or travel frequently
• You've lost your passport, or it was stolen
• You want to protect elderly relatives from scammers
• You're paying off an existing loan and don't plan to take on new debt