Octobank’s online acquiring has become more functional — the bank’s partners have gained the ability to accept payments via Apple Pay and Google Pay both on websites and in apps. The customer needs to confirm the payment on their smartphone, the bank’s press service reported.
The launch took place at a moment when the Uzbek market had come close to working with global digital wallets. The legal basis for this was created by Law No. ZRU-1125 of 26 March 2026, which came into force on 27 March: the document determined which categories of personal data must be stored inside the country and which may be processed abroad provided that security requirements are met. In late July, the Central Bank reported that, after the amendments were adopted, the regulator had started talks with Apple and Google together with banks and the national operators Humo and Uzcard.
At the same time, the environment in which such services prove to be in demand is expanding. The volume of e-commerce in Uzbekistan has grown 22-fold over five years, and the number of e-commerce platforms increased from 36 at the beginning of 2024 to 115 by the start of 2026. The more purchases move online, the more tangible the cost of every extra action during payment becomes — especially in segments where the decision is made quickly, as with buying tickets.
“The ability to pay for a plane ticket in literally a few taps on your smartphone is no longer just an extra option, but an essential part of modern service. It is important for us that some of the first to adopt this solution were major companies from the aviation and travel industries. This is a good example of how payment technologies can make the customer’s journey from choosing a service to paying for it far simpler,” noted Vladimir Vasilyev, Managing Director for Cross-Border Money Transfers and E-commerce at Octobank.
The first major companies to enable the new payment method were Uzbekistan Airways and Centrum Air. Their passengers can already pay with digital wallets when buying plane tickets. All transactions are protected by tokenization — the real card data is not passed on to the merchant.
“Thanks to this solution, our customers can now pay for air tickets via Apple Pay and Google Pay without having to enter their bank card details manually. This is another step towards improving the online purchasing process. We value our cooperation with Octobank and its contribution to the development of modern digital payment solutions for Uzbekistan’s aviation industry,” the press service of Uzbekistan Airways stated.
For the bank, this is already not the first update of digital services this year. In August, Octobank opened conversion operations and payments in 16 key currencies to legal entities — among the destinations are the UAE, China, Singapore, the eurozone countries, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Poland, the Czech Republic, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand and Japan. Businesses gained the ability to settle with foreign counterparties directly in the currency of the foreign trade contract. And a day earlier, clients of the bank’s partner financial institutions were given access to transfers between Uzbekistan and Turkey, China, Israel and Tajikistan. Octobank has been operating on the market since June 2001.
Apple Pay and Google Pay are available within Octobank’s online acquiring and can be enabled by companies accepting payments online.
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