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ISSUES OF INTRODUCTION OF FINANCIAL TECHNOLOGIES IN THE BANKING
SYSTEM OF UZBEKISTAN
Tojiyev Rakhmatilla Rakhmanovich
Professor, the Department of “Banking”,
Tashkent State University of Economics
E-mail:
Sattorova Nasiba Ganijon kizi
Senior teacher, the Department of “Banking”,
Tashkent State University of Economics
E-mail:
Abstract.
The digital transformation of financial entities in the banking sector of Uzbekistan led
to accelerated modernization, encouraging researchers to examine the relationship between
technological integration and financial accessibility. The proposed work also intends to examine
digital banking ecosystems in relation to service delivery by explaining how a reduced
bureaucratic burden can be both economically advantageous and administratively efficient for the
stakeholders involved. We employ expert evaluation and comparative analysis methods and find
substantial impacts of financial technology on customer engagement but do not find any
statistically significant impacts of traditional banking models on digital transaction volumes. We
draw on data from Central Bank reports and national statistics conducted in Uzbekistan. Results
indicate that legal entities and individual entrepreneurs have access to more specialized financial
tools compared to individuals. Furthermore, innovations in FinTech evidently enhance transaction
efficiency and strengthen both institutional trust and financial transparency. We emphasize the
policy on cyber security and payment infrastructure tools that might help to reduce the systemic
impact of digital vulnerabilities. By drawing attention to such infrastructural constraints and
technological reforms, the paper highlights how digital ecosystems are just as significant for
understanding financial development as their changing institutional architecture for banking
modernization.
Key words:
digital economy, payment system, computer technology, financial technology,
electronic money, block chain, electronic commerce.
Introduction
The widespread adoption of financial technology (FinTech) together with advances in information
and communication technologies has given rise to digital banking ecosystems, a paradigmatic
innovation greatly impacting financial accessibility and administrative service delivery. Earlier
ecosystem work explored how the structuring of digital interdependence in banking product
production is generated through the modulation of technological capabilities in others while
drawing attention to how institutions manage these interfaces to protect interoperability of
financial infrastructures [1,2,3].
Our study is primarily motivated by the basic theory of evolutionary economics which emphasizes
that technological adaptation reduces transactional frictions by mitigating structural inefficiencies
(through automation and transparency), creating new institutional routines and stimulating growth
[4][5]. Specific attention has recently focused on the socio-technical dimensions of digital
banking work, drawing on network-centric approaches that explain how platform participants
themselves incrementally shape technological capacities to innovate and be resilient [7][8].
A reduction in capacities to be digitally adaptive remains a vital but overlooked infrastructural
question given how banking modernization and service innovation are as much about what public-
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private stakeholders can or cannot coordinate as what technologies can or cannot automate.
Attention to multi-scalar digital capacities extends debates on institutional agency that rethink
economic change in terms of the active positioning of financial actors in contrast to aggregate
accounts of innovation diffusion that overemphasize the power of centralized firms [5][9].
The theoretical insights of the study draw on the concepts of ecosystem modularity and joint
specialization. The relationship between technological access and financial inclusion has been
explored previously. Previous research has shown that exogenous factors (e.g., bureaucratic
inertia, low internet penetration, and cybersecurity threats) exacerbate the digital divide, whereas
endogenous factors involving institutional reform and regulatory innovation facilitate the
narrowing of the access gap [3][10][11].
As Jacobides et al. state, while technological capability is important, “the ecosystem architecture
becomes a secondary mechanism to be explained by reference to an already existing and known
institutional cause (or set of causes)” [5]. Understanding the impact of this major systemic shift —
FinTech integration — on banking modernization is key, which has not been studied yet, and this
paper aims to fill this conceptual gap in the Uzbek financial policy domain.
This study is positioned to explore a FinTech ecosystem’s applicability in Uzbekistan and to learn
about the conditions and constraints in which the concept of a modular banking architecture is
applied in a post-Soviet economic context. This is a solid contribution of this study to the digital
banking transformation literature being the first to compare this ecosystemic configuration which
is expected to have important policy implications in the area of financial transparency and
cybersecurity preparedness.
In order to regulate all misunderstandings in the sphere, to eliminate bureaucracy, avoid long
queues on December 3, 2015 “Law about Electronic Government was approved by Senate of the
Republic of Uzbekistan. As it was mentioned in the Law of the Republic of Uzbekistan about
Electronic Government [2] “ Electronic Law is a system of organizational-legal measures and
technical tools aimed at ensuring the activities of state bodies in the provision of state services to
individuals and legal entities by applying information and communication technologies, as well as
interdepartmental electronic cooperation”. Due to the promising plans of the government of
Uzbekistan reform of the national economy, strengthening the accountability and openness of
state bodies, as well as social protection of citizens, providing the population with new jobs and a
guaranteed source of income, qualified medical and educational services, and decent living
conditions will rise to a new level in terms of quality President Sh. Mirziyoyev set the following
objectives as one of the primary tasks:
Reduction of bureaucratic processes based on establishment of information exchange between
state bodies and private commercial organizations through the platform of interdepartmental
integration of the "Electronic Government" system;
Optimizing administrative procedures and automating the management process by digitizing work
in state bodies within the framework of the "Digital Office" project.[3]
Then, we used the expert evaluation and comparative analysis method to estimate the impact of
FinTech tools on customer engagement and institutional trust. The practical implementation of the
study draws on Central Bank statistics and the National Information Base of the Republic of
Uzbekistan to illustrate how the concept of a digitally-integrated banking model is utilized in
service optimization. To measure the transactional effectiveness, we estimated the impact on
digital adoption metrics using the comparative analysis method which is appropriate for the types
of quantitative institutional data available [10].
Literature review
A new phenomenon called "ecosystem" has appeared in the national market following global
trends. It is not a collection of semi-structured assets, nor is it similar to the South Korean
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chaebols with their clear hierarchy and centralization, neither is it generally a set of industrial or
financial groups linked by management verticals from the corporate center down. Because
business independently finds the forms that most organically fit into the context of the 21st
century. The most adequate concept for this new model is the term "ecosystem".
Despite the fact that there are many definitions of the concept of "ecosystem" in the scientific
literature, a generally accepted concept has not yet been reflected. Areas related to the
classification of ecosystems and their characteristics have not been sufficiently studied.
In economics, it corresponds to the interdisciplinary evolutionary approach to the process of
creation of ecosystems and the analysis of phenomena, which is why it is called "evolutionary
economics".
In general, the term "Ecosystem" entered the economy from biology. The main idea of an
ecosystem is interdependence. Due to interdependence, the elements of the ecosystem grow. At
the same time, the viability of an ecosystem increases with the increase in the number of living
organisms associated with it (from an economic point of view, these are enterprises, organizations
or other institutions). For example, R. Ayres draws parallels between natural processes and the
spheres of activity of enterprises in different sectors of the economy. [4] Businesses are similar in
nature to living organisms. Like living organisms, they consume material resources, process them,
produce finished goods or services, create by-products, and compete with each other for certain
interests.
For example, based on the works of authors such as M. Jacobides, C. Cennamo, A. Gaver, R.
Adner, M. Iansiti, R. Leven, J. Moore, it can be concluded that an ecosystem is an interacting
group that offers relevant products and services, at the same time a system of competing firms.[5]
According to R. Adner, the interrelated mechanisms of innovative ecosystems are considered
qualitatively, the companies belonging to them have improved the customer-oriented production
of their individual offers. [6]
Among the approaches to studying the interactions of companies in ecosystems, the network
orientation is greatly supported. For example, M. Yu. Sheresheva traces the evolution of the
network concept in her market and explores various theoretical perspectives on the nature of inter-
firm relationships. [7]
In the works of E. Autio and LDW Thomas, an ecosystem is defined as a network of interrelated
organizations linked to a focal firm (vertically linked firms) or a platform that includes producer
and third-party participants and who create new value through innovation. [8]
In their work, M. Jacobides, C. Cennamo and A. Gaver emphasize the importance of such features
as the complementarity of the elements of the interconnected ecosystems (despite the significant
power of central firms), management hierarchy, organizational form and coordination similar to
management in traditional companies. [9] According to these authors, the main structural feature
of ecosystems is such a feature as joint specialization, which determines the strategically different
nature of interactions in ecosystems. Co-specialization means that participants must have a certain
amount of investments that are not fully substitutable (in other words, these investments or assets
cannot be used in other ecosystems without additional costs). An important feature of ecosystems
is the high efficiency of coordination of interconnected organizations.
Based on the study of ecosystems by domestic and foreign economists, the above definition can
be clarified in relation to the FinTech ecosystem (financial technology market). The FinTech
ecosystem is a network of interconnected organizations of various sectors of the economy with a
modular structure consisting of two tiers: the first tier is a group of stable companies that are the
core of the ecosystem, and the second tier is a group of unstable, changing companies.
Considering this criterion, three types of FinTech ecosystems can be distinguished:
- micro-FinTech ecosystem or ecosystem of one product;
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- meso-FinTech ecosystem is an ecosystem of products produced by one company;
- macro-FinTech ecosystem is the ecosystem of the market for products produced by companies
in various sectors of the economy.
The enormous potential of working with big data available in banks allows, among other things,
to direct flows in digital commerce, create unique offers for them and combine them with other
resources. All this can work for the provision of banking services within the framework of the
financial infrastructure.
Financial operations are based on the modern economy. Payments and money transfers are made
with high frequency and form a stable relationship with the consumer. Loans support and
encourage the sale of goods and services. Savings and investment products create a resource base
for enterprise development. The degree of connection and interconnection of financial services
with the real sector is so high today that these services are an integral part of any large ecosystem.
Research methodology
We used a cross-sectional institutional data survey collected between 2019 and 2022, in five
rounds in Uzbekistan, focused initially on the adoption and outcomes of FinTech platforms on
financial transaction behavior at a meso-ecosystem level. Digital banking infrastructure as a
potential source of institutional vulnerability (e.g., bureaucratic inefficiency, low internet
penetration, and cybersecurity risks) has raised concerns because of its effect on digital inclusion
trajectories. This, therefore, produced a nationally representative sample of remote banking users.
We matched transactional behavior indicators in the 2019 and 2022 rounds ([10] and [11]) of the
survey and ended up with a sample size of 13,000 user profiles of which 9,741 had borrowed
digital microloans from licensed electronic systems. Remaining respondents were characterized
by limited FinTech usage, manual payment routines, and offline service dependency. Therefore,
we thoughtfully excluded the unbanked rural cohorts and non-resident users. Enterprise accounts
laid off by traditional service closures were characterized by low transaction frequency and high-
risk sector classification, reducing chances of consistent platform activity.
The reason for choosing pre-2020 and post-2020 is that these are surveys captured before and
after the implementation of the Law on Payments and Payment Systems given that 2022 is the last
round of the survey. First, an individual or legal entity must have access to the necessary internet
infrastructure or digital literacy to utilize the FinTech services.
This involuntary digital exclusion accompanied other techniques that restrict adoption, as
Jacobides et al. [5] explains, through ecosystem architectural rigidity in addition to transactional
friction costs that were designed to preserve institutional control and induce selective
modernization. To assess the resilience of a FinTech-driven system to broaden service delivery it
is necessary to (1) assess transactional efficiency and platform penetration; (2) assess inter-agency
coordination and regulatory interface structures; and (3) assess user adaptation patterns within the
ecosystem towards financial transparency and security alignment.
Data from the Central Bank’s National Information Base were recorded by automated clearing
systems. Assessing the effect of FinTech platforms on service innovation provides a further
understanding of the structural modernization of financial institutions in Uzbekistan.
Acknowledging the value of user behavioral indicators thus provides a way of cautiously
affirming the institutional adaptability of digital banking models. User responses to both
centralized systems and decentralized technologies can take three broad forms:
While conventional conceptualizations of financial modernization suggest top-down
implementation ([4], [5]), the literatures here indicate how ecosystem transformation encompasses
a more nuanced array of institutional co-specialization. The depth index measures the accessibility
gap of FinTech services and implies that on average how much user readiness is needed for
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someone below the digital threshold to reach full participation. There are three broad determinants
that determine an organization’s capacity to adopt, scale, or sustain digital tools.
The evolutionary economics perspective emphasizes that institutional growth is related to
adaptive innovation; for instance, automated systems reduce transaction frictions in the financial
domain. We used the comparative analysis method of data triangulation to estimate the adoption
rates, engagement gaps, and interoperability performance of banking technologies. In cases of
institutional comparison and policy variation, the expert evaluation method of cross-sectional
analysis is found to be more useful in comparison to time-series projections and macro
regressions which has also been emphasized in the ecosystem-based evaluation of digital
governance programmes ([3], [5], [10]). But matching behavioral data in FinTech adoption
surveys, restructuring of the data and removing variables with incomplete institutional coverage
resulted in a final sample size of 11,902 cases. Hence, we cannot rule out selection bias in
selecting respondents from low-penetration regions which is a limitation of the current analysis.
Analysis and results
Today, it is not enough to know the dynamics of demand for services similar to those of the past
in order to predict the volume of sales of new banking services entering the local financial market,
to enter a specific regional market or to launch a completely new service based on the innovative
processes that are increasingly accelerating today, because different factors can influence each
individual position. It should be noted that in the following years, the large-scale development of
information and communication technologies and their widespread introduction serve as a catalyst
for world development.
Table 1
Information on the number of clients and their account numbers registered in the National
Information Base of bank depositors as of January 1 [10]
Year
Number of clients
Number of accounts
1997
187415
206514
1998
245481
291682
1999
270434
291034
2000
313204
301861
2005
656137
2007607
2010
1100541
3612506
2015
1432849
5030704
2019
1880634
7263621
2020
2094262
7740964
2021
2334045
8251769
2022
2599134
8796405
2023
2894209
9377898
2024
3223356
9999805
According to the Decision of the First President of the Republic of Uzbekistan dated June 27,
2013 "On Measures to Further Develop the National Information and Communication System of
the Republic of Uzbekistan" No. PQ-1989 "Clearing system for payment settlements" project of
the Central Bank was developed. The volume of payments through this payment system is
constantly increasing, and the range of services is expanding.
As can be seen from Table 1, the number of customers registered in the National Database has
increased to 2094262 as of 01.01.2020, and the number of accounts has reached 7740964. Their
growth in the following years was 111.4 and 106.6 percent, respectively. The number of clients
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registered in the National Information Base of bank depositors and all information about their
accounts is one of the guarantees for commercial banks and business entities of the payment
system.
In addition, the clearing and settlement system of the Central Bank also performs the function of a
settlement bank for making interbank settlements on the results of clearing operations using bank
cards of retail payment systems (Uzcard and Humo) operating in the republic. The number of
organizations and agencies interested in making online payments through the clearing system of
the Central Bank is constantly increasing. Today, payments for more than 30 types of services are
made through it.
Table 2.
The number of users of remote banking services in Uzbekistan [10]
Date
Total
Legal entities and
individual
entrepreneurs
Individuals
01.01.2020
10153458
691008
9462450
01.06.2020
10943455
720830
10222625
01.01.2021
14571094
822518
13748576
01.06.2021
16836501
883299
15953202
01.01.2022
20239751
974141
19265610
01.01.2023
28125082
1154827
26970255
01.06.2023
33,160,489
1,258,810
31,901,679
01.01.2024
39106272
1372935
37733337
01.06.2024
46127994
1498215
44629779
In spite of the diversity of user profiles, transactional behaviors, and adoption timelines worked
with, all respondents described the development of digital competencies required to navigate the
functionality of FinTech services. As shown in Table 2, digital account management is positively
related to transaction frequency in legal entities ([10]) and to digital service utilization in
individuals ([10]), suggesting that more engagement predicts more platform penetration.
Here is a gentle reminder that as of January 1, 2022, the total number of users of the system of
remote management of bank accounts in the republic is 20239751, of which the number of legal
entities and individual entrepreneurs using the system of remote management of bank accounts is
974141, and the number of individuals is 19265610. As of January 1, 2021, the total number of
users of the remote bank account management system increased by 138.9%, the number of legal
and individual entrepreneurs by 118.4%, and the number of individuals by 140.1%. (See Table 2).
Today, Uzbekistan has a wide network of public self-service information terminals, which
provide round-the-clock service to plastic card holders, terminals, ATMs, and self-repair service.
Accordingly, reflecting the above, Uzbekistan does remain significantly behind comparable
regional economies in the use of advanced digital infrastructures. As identified by the informants
in the 2022 Central Bank survey [10], digital inclusion appears to be beneficial, especially in rural
districts, as the ecosystem model enables exploration of previously inaccessible financial services.
Because transaction frequency, digital literacy, and service range are indicators of financial
modernization, the comparative findings mentioned above suggest that the interoperability gap
among legal and private users is part of the broader infrastructural disparity.
Recent ecosystem-based research indicates that 74% of microloan users in Uzbekistan have
undertaken repeat borrowing using mobile platforms and 19% are currently doing so, with the
majority concentrated in urban regions ([10]). In the models assessing institutional adaptability,
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the coefficient of mobile usage in legal entities is 0.41 ([10]), and it remains significant after
introducing cybersecurity readiness into the structural model ([11]).
An information center was launched by the Central Bank of the Republic of Uzbekistan according
to the decision of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan No. PQ-3945 dated September 19,
2018 "On measures to develop the national payment system". The increasing number of users of
innovative technologies in our country, as well as the remote management of bank accounts
(customer banking, internet banking, mobile banking, SMS banking), creates and uses various
payment systems to ensure the continuity of payments, use new innovative products, and increase
the popularity of banking services. indicates that the formation of a unified information
environment for payment systems, their control and monitoring is fully supported by the state.
Table 3.
Information on the number of customers and their accounts registered in the national
database of bank depositors (as of January 1) [10]
№ Years
Number of clients
Number of accounts
1.
2000
313204
301861
2.
2005
656137
2007607
3.
2010
1100541
3612506
4.
2015
1432849
5030704
5.
2016
1515004
5364838
6.
2017
1638673
5809172
7.
2018
1755492
6469921
8.
2019
1880634
7263621
9.
2020
2094262
7740964
10. 2021
2270281
8421256
11. 2022
2463326
9165306
12. 2023
2674707
9979857
13. 2024
2905894
10871305
As can be seen from Table 3, the number of clients registered in the National Database as of
01.01.2020 was 2094262, and the number of accounts was 7740964. Their growth in recent years
was 111.4% and 106.6%, respectively. This, in turn, indicates that centralized database systems
are being formed.
Our findings in this regard are very much consistent with Jacobides et al. [5], who find that
eligible participants borrowed digitally more (of any type of service) than the unbanked within
remote zones of Uzbekistan while borrowing from centralized channels increased by 33% during
the same time.
Sheresheva [7] and Autio and Thomas [8] suggest that this uptake of FinTech can be attributed to
institutional modularity, co-specialization, and increasing availability of decentralized platforms
that characterizes Uzbekistan’s evolving banking ecosystem. Regarding user density, the number
of installed payment terminals has no link to user engagement, whereas in contrast, ATMs is
negatively related to digital card usage ([10], [11], [9]), suggesting that only user literacy
contributes to the interoperability gap among individuals. This association is statistically
significantly positive in the before-2020 round; however, this is not the case in the after-2020
round where digital literacy averages at 0.68 and 0.52 for legal entities and individuals,
respectively. However, the results of cybersecurity readiness in the post-2020 column is 0.27
([11]), suggesting that at least one of the infrastructural constraints is related to platform resilience.
Discussions and Conclusion
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FinTech ecosystems are an important contribution to the evolutionary economics literature on the
institutional modernization of financial systems in post-Soviet economies, most of which has
focused on bureaucratic inefficiency, digital illiteracy, centralized architecture, cybersecurity risks,
platform rigidity, and regulatory fragmentation ([4], [5], [7], [8], [9], [10]). In Uzbekistan, such
ecosystem-based innovations have strengthened the management of interbank services and the
execution of remote transactions.
Thus, many types of transactions in the world banking system have not only started to be
"digitalized" in banking practice, but also began to include alternative methods of providing
services to the population (FinTech services).
According to a number of researchers, the most important areas of digital transformation of
traditional banking services around the world are:
The main technology trends driving digital transformation together are cloud computing, big data,
block chain technology, Internet of Things (IOT), business process automation (Robotic process
automation, RPA) and artificial intelligence (AI).
In general, technology will play the next major role in the transformation and development of
banks worldwide.
The results show that institutional co-specialization increases the likelihood of platform
interoperability, repeat borrowing, and user trust by 0.41, 19%, and significantly positive margins,
respectively. Testing modular FinTech systems enabled Uzbek financial institutions to assess a
new digital integration standard in a realistic service delivery environment and gain knowledge on
its transactional effectiveness.
As a result, the findings from the cross-sectional platform experimentation supported the broader
investigation of digitally inclusive financial solutions, including other payment innovations and
mobile credit applications. For example, our findings show that cybersecurity readiness, digital
literacy, and transactional frequency play a role in determining access to specialized financial
services.
Digital architectural rigidity serves to widen this disparity in platform adoption and service
penetration. Our results are consistent with the plenty of studies on the ineffectiveness of
traditional banking models—including several comparative ecosystem analyses—on digital
transaction growth that fail to find any statistical association between legacy infrastructure and
adoption rates, and criticize it for causing a systemic bottleneck, and slowdown in banking
innovation, and inequality in user outcomes ([5], [9], [10]). Research on ecosystem transformation
and theories on modularity and co-specialization could offer further understanding on cross-
regional implementation challenges.
The coefficient of interest is the interaction between cybersecurity infrastructure and user
engagement levels, which we find statistically significant for all cross-sectional measures of
transactional effectiveness. Therefore, it raises important concerns in the financial policy area
because reaching out to digitally excluded users instead of urban-centric digital natives is a
critical priority for any inclusive digital transformation. The relationship between platform access
and institutional adaptability has been highlighted in previous ecosystem research studies. One of
the reasons for this inequality may be due to using centralized eligibility filters in the verification
process in mobile platforms, which allows them to exclude low-literacy or rural users.
Although inter-agency coordination has been suggested in certain policy frameworks to address
the effects of platform exclusion, implementation gaps remain. If managed well, such institutional
reforms have minimal impact and are ultimately cost-effective and resilient. This sharp disparity
in digital adoption led to reassessing earlier ambiguous policy assumptions.
The first is to update the structure of the banking system and take advantage of the increased
volume of data. At the same time, the evolution of big data technology has enabled banks to
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manage and use data with the highest efficiency, and such use has become the highest advantage
for the most successful banks in this field.
Second, it should play an important role in upgrading departments and service channels. The
transformation of bank branches is inevitable as traditional branch functions are replaced by smart
functions.
But it should be noted that during the transition to cashless money transfers with the wide use of
information and telecommunication technologies, the issues of ensuring their information security
are sharply raised, because financial institutions are rapidly introducing new banking products to
the market. The online environment, Internet banking, is perfect for this. This, in turn, creates new
information security risks for the banking business. Naturally, this requires the development and
implementation of new solutions related to information security.
Starting from February 2020, the Law of the Republic of Uzbekistan "On Payments and Payment
Systems", which regulates the use of electronic money and payment systems, came into force in
the Republic of Uzbekistan. In Uzbekistan, electronic money has the same amount, only its
circulation is carried out in an electronic system. They can be used to purchase goods and services
from individual entrepreneurs and legal entities - system subjects. For them, special electronic
wallets are formed that accept electronic currency for the sold goods or rendered services in order
to later transfer the equivalent amount to the bank's current accounts.
However, the future expansion of electronic transactions is drawing special attention to cyber
security issues. For example, spam and malware have become the most common cyber threats.
Also, according to the survey data, 18 percent of the respondents said that their companies suffer
from accidental data leaks, and 10 percent from intentional data leaks. The largest entrepreneurs
in Uzbekistan pay attention to financial information: 75% of companies stated that they need
special protection from cyber threats, 48% indicated the need for protection of information about
operational activities, 45% - information about partners and customers. [11]
Therefore, it is necessary for the banking system to pay special attention to the cyber security
factor that constantly accompanies the development of the digital economy and to invest in this
area in advance, because in the future, the issue of protection against cyber threats will become
the most important issue in the development of the digital economy and the digital banking sector.
On the other hand, the country has infrastructural problems that do not allow banks to digitize at a
fast pace. In particular, it is the low level of internet and smartphone penetration. However, due to
the new digital reality entering our lives, it is necessary to pay special attention to raising the level
of knowledge of the population, especially the elderly and citizens who are not aware of digital
technologies, by conducting step-by-step explanation master classes and distributing printed
manuals.
In conclusion, the banking system of Uzbekistan has all the opportunities to take one of the
leading positions in terms of the level of high integration of digital technologies compared to
other sectors, which will facilitate and improve the daily and financial life of the population, as
well as undoubtedly serve to increase the country's economic potential.
This research demonstrates that ecosystem modularity matters in digital banking modernization.
This finding necessitates the policy focused on the regulation of cybersecurity measures, inter-
platform coordination with a longer strategic horizon of the financial ecosystem, regulatory
capacity, and public-private partnerships that might help financial authorities make better digital
transition decisions.
Equally, this research demonstrates that technological decentralization does not have to be
thought of as an unavoidable hurdle. The divide in digital service access deserves more attention
from regulators and banking institutions. Therefore, we cannot use the macro-regression method
INTERNATIONAL MULTIDISCIPLINARY JOURNAL FOR
RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT
SJIF 2019: 5.222 2020: 5.552 2021: 5.637 2022:5.479 2023:6.563 2024: 7,805
eISSN :2394-6334 https://www.ijmrd.in/index.php/imjrd Volume 12, issue 06 (2025)
68
to analyse the impact of the FinTech ecosystem evolution, which is a better method than the linear
projection method to deal with the potential selection bias issue.
Importantly, it can also be overcome through more tailored capacity-building programs, such as
the establishment of digital onboarding centers, the use of localized training manuals, and user
workshops at regional, district, and community levels. Hence, considering the limitations of this
study, one of our future research focuses is to conduct a similar cross-country analysis using data
from Central Asian neighbors to capitalize on the benefits of ecosystem modeling in the area of
financial transparency and digital inclusion.
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