Standards/uzcard
UzCard/Humo
Overview
Note on classification. This entry was originally bucketed as a QR standard, but Uzcard is not a QR-symbol standard. It is reclassified as
Card— a uzbek dual card networks (uzcard + humo). The wiki shows no playground because there is no QR payload to encode; the slug is retained to avoid breaking incoming links.
UzCard / Humo are Uzbekistan's two dominant national card-payment systems — providing the majority of retail, salary, and pension transactions across Uzbekistan [1, 2, [uz-cro]]. UzCard is the original Uzbek domestic card scheme + first national card system; HUMO is the competing national payment system based on bank payment cards. By 2025, 30+ million UzCard + Humo cardholders combined — with 27+ million Humo cards issued, 210,000+ POS terminals, and 6,400+ ATMs deployed. UzCard and HUMO card-acceptance interoperability — cards can often be used at the other system's ATMs and POS terminals.
The structural distinction: Uzbekistan's dual national-card-scheme model is structurally unusual — most countries have single-national-card-scheme (RuPay IN, TakaPay BD, Mada SA) rather than dual-competing. The co-badging strategy with Visa, Mastercard, UnionPay produces UzCard-Mastercard, UzCard-UnionPay, Humo-Visa, Humo-Mastercard, Humo-UnionPay card variants — enabling both local + international use on single physical card. January 2025 — Paynet's $65M acquisition of Humo payment-processing system marks privatisation milestone. UzCard's Tez QR Payments add QR-payment-source-selection across UZCARD + HUMO + Visa + Mastercard + UnionPay + installment cards + bank accounts + electronic wallets — comprehensive payment-source aggregation. This makes Uzbekistan's payment infrastructure one of Central Asia's most-developed.
History
Background — Uzbek payment landscape UZ:
- Central Bank of Uzbekistan (CBU) — central bank.
- UzCard — original Uzbek national card system.
- HUMO — competing Uzbek national payment system.
- Tez — UzCard's QR-payment product.
UzCard launch as first Uzbek national card system [1]:
- Original Uzbek domestic card scheme.
HUMO launch as competing national payment system [1]:
- 27M+ cards issued.
Co-badging with Visa + Mastercard + UnionPay [2]:
- UzCard-Mastercard, UzCard-UnionPay, Humo-Visa, Humo-Mastercard, Humo-UnionPay variants.
UzCard and HUMO interoperability [3]:
- Cross-system ATM + POS acceptance.
Tez QR Payments by UzCard [trend]:
- Multi-source QR-payment selection.
January 2025 — Paynet acquires Humo for $65M [gazeta]:
- Privatisation milestone.
By 2025 — 30M+ combined cardholders / 27M+ Humo / 210K+ POS / 6,400+ ATMs [1]:
- Substantial scale.
Technical specification
UzCard / Humo are Uzbekistan's dual national card-payment systems with co-badging + Tez QR [1, 2]:
| Layer | Description |
|---|---|
| UzCard operator | UzCard JSC |
| HUMO operator | Paynet (post-Jan 2025 acquisition) |
| Country | Uzbekistan |
| Currency | UZS (Uzbek som) |
| Combined cardholders (2025) | 30+ million |
| HUMO cards | 27+ million |
| POS terminals | 210,000+ |
| ATMs | 6,400+ |
| Co-badging | UzCard-Mastercard, UzCard-UnionPay, Humo-Visa, Humo-Mastercard, Humo-UnionPay |
| Interoperability | Cross-system ATM + POS acceptance |
| Tez QR Payments | UzCard QR with multi-source selection (UZCARD + HUMO + Visa + MC + UnionPay + bank accounts + wallets) |
Use cases
Retail + POS card payments [1]: Cardinal — domestic card acceptance.
Salary + pension distribution [1]: Government-payment-rail use.
ATM withdrawals [3]: 6,400+ ATM network.
Co-badged international acceptance [2]: Visa, Mastercard, UnionPay.
Tez QR Payments multi-source [trend]: Cross-card + bank + wallet payments.
Online + e-commerce [1]: Domestic + international gateway.
Implementations & ecosystem
UzCard operator: UzCard JSC.
HUMO operator: Paynet (post-Jan 2025 acquisition).
Regulator: Central Bank of Uzbekistan (CBU).
International co-badging partners: Visa, Mastercard, UnionPay.
Cross-border integration: Paysend (UK + Europe).
Tez QR product: UzCard's QR-payment platform.
Fun facts
- 30M+ combined UzCard + HUMO cardholders by 2025: Substantial scale.
- 27M+ HUMO cards issued: Major national card scheme.
- 210K+ POS terminals + 6,400+ ATMs: Wide acceptance infrastructure.
- Dual national-card-scheme model: Unusual — most countries have single national scheme.
- Co-badging strategy: UzCard-Mastercard, UzCard-UnionPay, Humo-Visa, Humo-Mastercard, Humo-UnionPay.
- January 2025 Paynet $65M HUMO acquisition: Privatisation milestone.
- Tez QR Payments multi-source aggregation: Cross-card + bank + wallet QR.
- UzCard-HUMO interoperability: Cross-system ATM + POS.
Comparison
| Feature | UzCard / Humo (UZ) | RuPay (IN) | takapay (BD) | mada (SA) | MIR (RU) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Operator | UzCard JSC + Paynet (HUMO) | NPCI | Bangladesh Bank | SAMA | NSPK |
| Type | Dual national card schemes + Tez QR multi-source | Single national card | Single national card | Single national card | Single national card |
| Co-badging | Visa, Mastercard, UnionPay | Visa, Mastercard, JCB | None (yet) | Visa, Mastercard, UnionPay | UnionPay, JCB |
| Cardholders | 30M+ combined (2025) | 600M+ | 13 banks initial | Universal SA | Multi-million |
Status
- UzCard JSC + Paynet (HUMO) operators.
- 30M+ combined cardholders / 27M+ HUMO / 210K+ POS / 6,400+ ATMs (2025).
- Co-badging with Visa, Mastercard, UnionPay.
- Tez QR Payments multi-source.
- Jan 2025 Paynet $65M HUMO acquisition.
Sources
- 1 HUMO — official
- 2 UzCard + HUMO dominate UZ — 8b
- 3 UzCard + HUMO ATM integration — Yuz.uz
- trend UzCard Tez QR Payments — Trend.Az
- gazeta Paynet privatizes HUMO — Gazeta.uz
- [uz-cro]
reports/countries/UZ-uzbekistan.md
Deployments
Found in the following country reports (grep across reports/countries/):
- UZ — UZ-uzbekistan.md