Central Bank of Uzbekistan Labels Cyberattacks Key Risk

Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.uz) — The Central Bank of Uzbekistan has included rising cyber risks in its list of key threats to the financial stability of the country, according to its financial stability review for 2025.

According to the regulator's assessment, the accelerated digitalization of payment systems is accompanied by a growing number of cyber incidents. Attacks, information security breaches, and data thefts increase the operational losses of financial system participants and can ultimately undermine public trust in the system. The Central Bank views this loss of trust as the primary channel of risk to financial stability.

Market participants share this concern. In a systemic risk survey conducted among banks, cyberattacks were named among threats capable of negatively impacting the financial system of Uzbekistan, alongside defaults by major borrowers, economic downturns, and climate risks.

However, the top positions in the threat ranking are occupied by geopolitics (56% of responses), the rising debt burden of the population (32%), and exchange rate volatility (31%).

As a countermeasure, the Central Bank announced plans to implement an artificial intelligence-based monitoring system to track suspicious transactions and impose restrictions on operations flagged as suspicious. The regulator expects financial system participants to continuously improve and sustain resilient information security systems.

The third area of response focuses on financial literacy. The Central Bank plans to expand efforts to inform the population about cyberattacks and fraudulent schemes, noting that a significant portion of citizen losses is linked to social engineering methods rather than breaches of technical infrastructure.