At the PLUS-Forum Digital Uzbekistan, AI, RegTech, QR Payments, and Digital Transformation of Banks Were Discussed

RegTech, Data Governance

On May 19, 2026, in Tashkent, the session “Fintech. Digital Transformation of the Financial Industry. RegTech. Risk Analysis and Management. Automation of Supervisory Requirements” was held as part of the PLUS-Forum Digital Uzbekistan. The discussion took place in the Amir Temur hall and focused on how banks, fintech companies, and state digital services are transitioning to a new technological model.

The central topics of discussion included artificial intelligence, digital trust, the development of payment infrastructure, QR payments, RegTech, data management, challenges of legacy systems, shadow IT, automation of banking processes, and cultural barriers to digital transformation.

The session was moderated by Janargul Izimova, Director and Leader of the Strategic Consulting for Financial Institutions practice in Eurasia at Strategy&. She set the framework for the discussion, in which digital transformation was viewed not as an image-building project, but as a necessary stage in the development of the financial industry.

E-commerce is becoming part of the financial infrastructure

One of the first topics was the transformation of e-commerce. Kirill Korolev, Director of Strategic Fintech Development for Central and Middle Asia at Wildberries, noted that e-commerce has long ceased to be just a channel for selling goods.

According to him, marketplaces are gradually turning into full-fledged financial ecosystems. They are forming their own payment layers, developing customer scenarios, and becoming part of users’ daily financial behavior.

“E-commerce has long ceased to be just about trade. Financial service is becoming part of the customer journey,” noted Kirill Korolev.

This thesis is important for the entire region: Central Asia is ceasing to be a late adopter market. It is developing its own models of digital adaptation based on local user needs, the growth of marketplaces, and the rise of mobile financial services.

Cross-border payments are becoming a trust infrastructure

A separate block was dedicated to the development of global payment infrastructure. Anton Chen, Business Development Director for the CIS at Alipay+, presented a view on how cross-border payments, QR interoperability, embedded financial services, and ecosystem payments are changing.

The key takeaway from his speech was that cross-border payments are ceasing to be just a mechanism for transferring money between countries. They are becoming an infrastructure of trust between digital ecosystems.

“Cross-border payments today are no longer just a money transfer. It is an infrastructure of trust between ecosystems,” emphasized Anton Chen.

In this logic, financial services are gradually disappearing as a separate user experience. The customer increasingly does not need to specifically “go to the bank”: payments, transfers, credit, and other financial functions are embedded into familiar digital scenarios – from marketplaces to superapps.

Digital trust is becoming part of state infrastructure

Following the commercial perspective on fintech, the discussion moved to the state level. Nadir Parpiev, Head of the Service for Promoting the Development of Electronic Digital Signature Key Registration Centers at the Ministry of Digital Technologies of the Republic of Uzbekistan, spoke about the development of digital trust infrastructure.

This topic became key for the entire session. Participants emphasized that artificial intelligence, cross-border payments, digital services, and the digital economy cannot develop sustainably without trust in identification, data, and state digital systems.

“The cross-border space of trust is the next stage of digital development for states,” noted Nadir Parpiev.

Essentially, this means that digitalization begins not with an interface, application, or individual service, but with a basic infrastructure of trust. Without it, it is impossible to scale electronic signatures, government services, or cross-border interaction.

QR payments are becoming a matter of financial sovereignty

One of the most substantive presentations of the session was by Bogdan Zadorozhny, Co-founder and Director of Innovation at 8B. He examined the development of national QR systems, cross-border compatibility, and new account-to-account payment routes, which are gradually becoming an alternative to the infrastructure built around bank cards.

The key point of his speech was that a single central bank QR code could become one of the main fintech trends of the decade. It’s no longer just about user convenience or payment speed. National QR models allow countries to better control payment infrastructure, transaction routing, and ownership of payment flows.

“The single central bank QR code is the main fintech trend of the decade,” noted Bogdan Zadorozhny.

According to him, many markets are gradually moving away from the card-centric economy, where card systems play a key role. QR payments and A2A rails, which allow transactions directly between accounts, are developing as an alternative. This approach can reduce payment costs for businesses and create a more flexible infrastructure for cross-border settlements.

The presentation noted that card system commissions can reach 3–3.5%, while national QR models operate in the range of 0.3–0.8%. However, the issue is not limited to saving on commissions. For states and financial systems, this is also a matter of control over their own payment architecture, independence of routing, and the ability to build regional interaction models without complete dependence on external payment circuits.

Bogdan Zadorozhny paid special attention to the experience of ASEAN countries, where national QR systems and cross-border compatibility are already becoming part of the new payment logic. Such models allow users to make payments outside their country in a familiar format, and financial institutions to build a more direct and manageable settlement infrastructure.

This experience may be particularly important for Central Asia. Regional QR rails can become not just a convenient payment tool, but a basis for closer financial integration between countries. In the future, this could simplify cross-border payments, reduce costs for businesses, and strengthen the role of national currencies in settlements.

A separate direction in the presentation was the role of artificial intelligence in the future payment infrastructure. According to Bogdan Zadorozhny, the next stage of development for the financial industry may involve AI agents that will independently orchestrate payments, choose routes, manage liquidity, and support cross-border scenarios.

“AI is gradually becoming the execution layer of the financial system,” emphasized Bogdan Zadorozhny.

Thus, QR payments in his presentation were presented not as a separate technological function, but as part of a broader restructuring of the financial infrastructure. In this model, central banks, national payment systems, A2A rails, and AI agents are forming a new circuit for digital finance, where not only speed and convenience are important, but also sovereignty, cost, controllability, and trust.

Banks are looking for ways to reduce operational load

The practical application of artificial intelligence in the banking sector was the topic of a dialogue between Alexey Afonin, Vice President for Development at U-BSS, and Mikhail Danilin, Head of Digital Corporate at IpotekaBank OTP Group.

Alexey Afonin presented an approach where an AI CX Platform becomes a new operational layer for the bank. The presentation discussed Agentic AI, AI BI, Explainable AI, voice assistants, AI orchestration, and empathic artificial intelligence.

“AI should control the entire customer journey – before, during, and after interaction,” noted Alexey Afonin.

Special attention was paid to empathic AI – systems capable of considering the customer’s emotional state and adapting communication. This direction shows that the digitalization of banking services is already moving beyond simple automation of responses.

Mikhail Danilin, in turn, spoke from the perspective of a bank daily facing a large volume of routine operations. He noted that if AI can take over typical processes – account statements, template requests, and standard operations – then it should be used for these tasks.

“If AI can take over routine operations: account statements, template requests, typical processes, then it should do so,” emphasized Mikhail Danilin.

This block showed that for banks, AI is becoming not just a technological trend, but a way to maintain the stability of the operating model under increasing load.

RegTech is becoming the foundation of new banking architecture

While some participants spoke about artificial intelligence, Alexey Karnaukhov, former Chief Data Officer at IpotekaBank OTP Group, focused on data, Data Governance, and the requirements of modern regulators.

His presentation featured eight key requirements for regulatory data: data provenance, scale, quality, transparency, reproducibility, stability, granularity, and unified logic. He also presented the Reporting Data Readiness Index approach.

“Data Governance is becoming an operational model for managing regulatory data,” noted Alexey Karnaukhov.

According to him, banking tasks related to regulatory reporting are already overloading internal backlogs. This means that data management is ceasing to be a separate technical function and is becoming part of the bank’s operational architecture.

This is an important signal for the financial industry: RegTech is becoming not just an area for reporting automation, but a necessary condition for transparency, stability, and readiness of banks to meet new supervisory requirements.

Investments in AI are changing the global economy

Denis Tur, CEO of STRATTURA Consulting and former CDO of Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development, presented an overview of global technological trends in fintech. These include AI Agents, Programmable Money, Multimodal AI, Open Banking, Hyperautomation, Embedded Finance, and RegTech with AI.

The most striking part of the presentation was data on investments in artificial intelligence. According to estimates presented, private AI investments amount to 581.7 billion, and projected AI spending reaches $2.52 trillion.

“Today, about 80% of global venture investment is related to AI,” noted Denis Tur.

These figures show that artificial intelligence can no longer be viewed merely as a technological fad. It is becoming a factor in the restructuring of the global economy and the redistribution of capital.

The presentation also examined the experience of Southeast Asia, where high-tech financial ecosystems are developing even against a backdrop of uneven physical infrastructure. This example is also important for Central Asia: digital financial services can grow faster than traditional infrastructure if user scenarios and trust in technology are properly built.

AI will not replace management culture and trust within companies

One of the most debated presentations was by Igor Mushakov, an independent expert practitioner. He drew attention not to the technologies themselves, but to the organizational culture, without which digital transformation often fails to produce results.

Mushakov spoke about problems common to many companies in the region: legacy systems, shadow IT, vendor lock-in, fragmented architectures, manual processes, unstable infrastructure, and a lack of expertise.

“Data won’t help if there’s no culture inside the company,” noted Igor Mushakov.

He emphasized that implementing AI will not solve a company’s systemic problems if there is no trust, mature teams, accountability, and a willingness to change processes internally. According to him, the correct sequence looks like this: first relationships, then teams, then processes, and only then artificial intelligence.

This thesis provided an important counterbalance to the session’s technological optimism. It showed that digital transformation depends not only on investments and tools but also on the ability of organizations to change their management culture.

Most digital transformations do not yield measurable results

The final speech by Janargul Izimova provided a systematic conclusion to the session. She presented digital transformation as the intersection of three elements: strategy, operating model, and culture.

“Digital transformation delivers maximum returns only when strategy, operating model, and culture are synchronized,” emphasized Janargul Izimova.

According to her, about two-thirds of companies do not get measurable results from digital transformation. Reasons include a lack of alignment at the management level, lack of ownership, absence of a transformation center, weak change management, low data quality, and insufficient integration of projects into daily business activities.

“Many companies launch digital transformation but do not get measurable results from it,” noted Janargul Izimova.

This part of the discussion led to the main conclusion: digital transformation cannot be successful if it exists separately from strategy, operating model, and corporate culture.

Central Asia is forming its own digital model

The session of the PLUS-Forum Digital Uzbekistan showed that Central Asia is gradually ceasing to be perceived as a region of late technology adoption. It is beginning to form its own digital financial model, simultaneously developing state trust infrastructure, QR payments, artificial intelligence, RegTech, data management, marketplace finance, and new banking architectures.

A feature of this process is that the region is not simply copying Western, Chinese, or other digitalization models. Central Asia is building its own approach, in which technological solutions are closely linked to issues of trust, local culture, the role of the state, and the readiness of businesses for change.

The main conclusion of the session is that the digital transformation of the financial industry in 2026 is no longer reducible to the implementation of individual technologies. AI, QR payments, RegTech, Data Governance, and embedded finance are becoming parts of one system. But its sustainability will depend not only on the technological level but on whether users, companies, and state institutions are ready to trust these solutions.

It is trust – in data, infrastructure, people, and processes – that is becoming the key condition for the next stage of digital development in Central Asia.