FINOBOD forum discusses AI agents and QR payments abroad
At the FINOBOD forum in Tashkent, banking and payment representatives discussed AI agents, the cost of QR payments and the integration of payment systems for cross-border settlements.
Abdulrahman Sadikhli3 min read
At the "Banks and Payment Platforms" session of the FINOBOD forum in Tashkent, representatives of banks and payment companies discussed the use of artificial intelligence in banking services, the cost of QR payments, and the integration of national payment systems for cross-border settlements.
Moderator Anna Savina, president of the Right Outdoor Media group of companies, presented data from the Central Bank: over nine months of 2026, the volume of incoming international payments to Uzbekistan amounted to $15.9 billion, while outgoing payments amounted to $2 billion.
AI agents and payments
Roman Tretyakov, deputy chairman of the Octobank management board, noted that AI agents are already being used abroad for independent payments. As an example, he named the Stripe payment system, which allows an agent to select tickets, book a hotel and make a payment on the client's instruction. According to him, Visa and Mastercard are lagging behind in this area due to a large number of internal regulations.
Octobank is developing a "bank-as-a-service" model: partners connect to the platform and build their own products on it, while key functions, including AML, anti-fraud and interaction with government systems, remain inside the bank.
Sergey Kozlov, adviser to the chairman of the management board and chief AI director of Uzbekistan's Uzpromstroybank, said that for a bank AI remains a scaling tool rather than a goal in itself. According to him, the bank uses a single Nova platform and reuses common components, such as speech recognition used in the call centre, in quality control, in departments and in the processing of images and documents. He stressed that a bank can delegate functions to external solutions, but not responsibility for decisions.
Kozlov noted that credit decisions must be explainable, and the impact of new scoring models should be assessed using A/B tests. According to him, instead of a simple refusal, the client should be offered alternatives: flexible repayment schedules and credit issuance in tranches.
QR payments and international integration
Islam Diyarov, director of the equiring and HUMO emission department, said the company has implemented integration with Apple Pay and India's UPI system, and is also working on a project with Kazakhstan. Among the main tasks of international integration, he named agreeing on KYC and AML requirements and standards for exchanging client data. According to him, responsibility for verifying merchants and clients remains at the national level.
Diyarov noted that in Uzbekistan QR payments cost roughly five times more than POS acquiring, whereas globally the reverse is usually the case. The final merchant rate is formed in cascade from the commissions of the payment system, the issuing bank and the acquirer. Tretyakov added that about a month ago seven Uzbek banks launched Apple Pay, but this did not reduce the popularity of QR.
Ekaterina Zemskova, chief operating officer and director of PAY10 digital assets, said the company holds licences of central banks in the UAE, Bahrain, India, Morocco and Vietnam. According to her, national QR systems can be connected via API so that travellers can use familiar payment tools across borders. She also noted that regulation is developing quickly in the UAE, while Morocco does not yet have such regulation.
Source: uzdaily.uz
