The Central Bank of Uzbekistan jointly with the government, is preparing to carry out a phased privatization of banks, which will become part of the concept of developing the financial sector in the medium term. This was announced today by the Chairman of the CB Mamarizo Nurmuratov.

The regulator has already divided banks with a state share into two categories. The first – banks that are ready for privatization, the second category consisting of financial institutions still needs improvement in management.

“We need to seriously improve the quality of the loan portfolio and seriously change the management. In this direction, we will designate the main tasks in the concept that we are currently working out together with the government to develop the financial sector in the medium term,” Nurmuratov said.

“The state’s share in the banking system is around 84%. We cannot immediately carry out mass privatization. We will do everything based on the readiness of each bank with a state share. With banks that are already ready for privatization, the work is proceeding separately. In the coming days, the government will issue relevant resolutions on the entry of private capital into them,” he added.

At the same time, a representative of the regulator noted that there are certain banks to which investors show interest and “do some work with the supervisory board”.

According to him, the International Finance Corporation, a member of the World Bank Group, is working in this direction with Ipoteka Bank and it is ready to enter the capital of the bank through its credit lines. Also, Asia Alliance Bank is being considered.

“The Central Bank does not intend to say that at the moment, some of the banks are ready for privatization and some are not. The investor will determine everything,” chairman of the CB stressed.