Özbekistan Fintech Derneği Başkanı Nargis Dustmatova, bu makalede CAMCA bölgesinde (Orta Asya, Moğolistan, Kafkasya ve Afganistan'ı kapsayan coğrafyada) ödeme altyapısının dönüşümünü ve finansal birlikte çalışabilirlik meselesini ele alıyor. Bölgesel ödeme koridorlarının olgunlaştığı, büyük teknoloji oyuncularının etkisinin arttığı ve regülatif uyumun giderek daha önemli hale geldiği bu dönemde makale; ödeme sistemleri, dijital finans ve bölgesel entegrasyon tartışmalarına ilişkin önemli bir perspektif sunuyor. İçerikte ele alınan başlıklar, FT Finansal Teknoloji'nin Türk dünyasında finansal altyapılar, dijital dönüşüm ve birlikte çalışabilirlik üzerine yürüttüğü çalışmalarla da paralellik taşıyor.

A region shaped by new power dynamics in payments

Over the past five years, the region's financial infrastructure has increasingly aligned with external technology ecosystems, particularly Chinese digital payment architecture. Platforms such as Alipay and Tencent's broader fintech ecosystem have expanded influence not only through direct payments technology, but also via venture capital, partnerships, and embedded financial services across emerging markets.

At the same time, geopolitical and financial instability in parts of the Middle East has further accelerated the reorientation of capital flows and fintech partnerships toward Central Asia, positioning the region as a strategic bridge between East Asia, Europe, and South Asia. The key question is no longer whether Central Asia is becoming integrated, but rather under whose technological and regulatory standards this integration will occur.

Central Asia as an emerging fintech corridor

Central Asia is rapidly evolving into a connected fintech corridor rather than a set of isolated national markets. Several recent developments illustrate this shift. In 2025, Kaspi.kz completed the acquisition of Turkish e-commerce platform Hepsiburada, marking a significant expansion of regional fintech-to-e-commerce convergence. Tencent-linked investment activity has expanded across the region, including strategic interest in Uzbek fintech ecosystem players such as Uzum, while reinforcing its footprint in Kazakhstan. Azerbaijan's PashaPay has also signalled expansion interest into Uzbekistan, further strengthening cross-border fintech alignment.

At the infrastructure level, early interoperability is already emerging. Kaspi.kz has enabled cross-border transfers into Uzbekistan's national payment systems Uzcard and Humo, and Uzbekistan has established interoperability with Kyrgyzstan's national operator Elcard. These developments are quietly laying the foundation for real-time regional payment corridors, reducing friction for both consumers and SMEs.

Mongolia, Afghanistan, and the fragmented edge of the ecosystem

The region is not uniform. Mongolia occupies a strategic position between major Asian markets and has developed one of the region's most advanced digital finance ecosystems. Organisations such as MonFin and diversified financial groups active across banking, insurance, brokerage, blockchain, and digital payments have positioned Mongolia's fintech sector closer to Southeast Asia's digital finance architecture than to the Central Asian mainstream. As a frontier market at the intersection of Central and East Asia, Mongolia represents a meaningful channel for investment inflows and market expansion one where the Turkic states' growing network can extend organically into the broader Southeast Asian fintech ecosystem.

Regional industry bodies  including AzFina in Azerbaijan, TürkFin in Turkey, and several counterpart organisations working closely with regulators, innovators, and market participants across the Turkic states are actively engaged in building the connectivity that makes this expansion possible, contributing to cross-border dialogue on innovation, collaboration, and standardisation. A concrete marker of this growing integration is the Fintech Association of Uzbekistan becoming the first Central Asian member of the Asian FinTech Alliance, joining associations from India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, South Korea, Japan, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and other leading fintech markets.

Afghanistan, meanwhile, represents a high-potential but structurally constrained market. Despite its challenges, it remains one of the most remittance-dependent economies globally, with strong demand for digital wallets, cross-border payments, and alternative financial infrastructure. Mobile money, agent networks, and potentially regulated crypto-based settlement rails could play a transformative role if supported by regulatory clarity and international coordination. Without stable governance frameworks, however, the risk of fragmentation and informal financial flows remains high.

Regulatory convergence: the real bottleneck

From a policy perspective, three areas are becoming critical enablers of interoperability: common API standards and open banking frameworks; harmonisation of KYC/AML requirements; and mutual recognition of digital identities, personal data frameworks, and e-signatures. These are not purely technical issues they define whether cross-border payments can scale beyond bilateral agreements into true regional ecosystems.

Multilateral platforms such as the Turkic States FinTech Alliance are increasingly important in this context, acting as coordination layers between regulators, central banks, and private sector players.

The role of fintech associations: building bridges, not silos

In this transformation, fintech associations are becoming infrastructure actors in their own right. Across the region, organisations including the Fintech Association of Uzbekistan, AzFina in Azerbaijan, TürkFin in Turkey, and several counterpart bodies are working closely with regulators, innovators, and market participants to facilitate dialogue, support cross-border pilot projects, and enable market entry discussions. Through platforms such as the Asian Fintech Alliance and the Turkic States FinTech Alliance, the focus is shifting toward cross-border regulatory dialogue, regional startup mobility, shared innovation frameworks in payments and digital identity, and investment facilitation between ecosystems. These platforms are increasingly important in ensuring that interoperability is shaped collaboratively within the region rather than dictated by external global technology players.

Big Tech, AI, and the new infrastructure layer

The next phase of fintech development will be defined by AI and data infrastructure. Global players such as Google Pay, Apple Pay, Tencent, and Ant Group are entering or influencing the region  directly or indirectly through partnerships, venture capital, and embedded financial services. This introduces both opportunity and risk. AI-driven fraud detection, credit scoring, and personalised financial services could significantly improve efficiency and inclusion. At the same time, questions around personal data sovereignty, cross-border data flows, and algorithmic dependency are becoming central policy concerns. The challenge for Central Asia will be to adopt innovation without surrendering control over critical financial and personal data infrastructure.

Outlook: borderless payments or fragmented integration?

The region is moving toward what might be called selective borderlessness — not fully unified markets, but increasingly interoperable corridors driven by bilateral and multilateral agreements. Central banks are cautiously exploring cross-border settlement frameworks, but full monetary integration remains distant. What is more likely is a network of interoperable national systems connected through shared standards, API layers, and regulated fintech bridges. The architecture of digital payments that will serve the region in 2030 is being designed today, whether deliberately or by default.

Market projections for the region's digital payments economy — including estimates pointing toward a volume exceeding 250 billion dollars by 2026 reflect the scale of what is at stake, though figures of this nature should be read as directional rather than precise, given the heterogeneity of methodologies across research sources. What is less contested is the direction of travel: digitisation is accelerating, and the question is not whether the infrastructure will be built, but by whom and according to whose standards.

Source note: The 250 billion dollar projection for regional digital payments volume is drawn from a market analysis published in The Paypers (Caucasus & Central Asia: A Market at the Crossroads). Figures of this nature represent analyst estimates and should be interpreted accordingly.

Competition or collaboration?

Central Asia is no longer a passive recipient of fintech innovation. It has talent, a young population, growing capital inflows, and rapidly digitising economies. The real question is whether the region can move from competitive fragmentation to structured collaboration. If successful, the potential outcomes include seamless multicurrency payments, lower transaction costs for SMEs and cross-border trade, integrated regional digital marketplaces, stronger resilience against cyber threats, and shared innovation ecosystems in AI-driven finance.

Cybersecurity will be a defining layer of this system. As connectivity increases, so does exposure to financial cyber threats, making regional cooperation in digital security not optional, but foundational.

The CAMCA region stands at a defining moment. It can either evolve into a fragmented landscape shaped by external infrastructure providers, or build a coordinated, interoperable, and innovation-driven financial ecosystem rooted in regional cooperation. The fintech strategy chosen today is a political choice and it will determine whether Central Asia becomes a peripheral market in global finance or one of its most dynamic and strategically connected corridors.

Key Dynamics and Strategic Priorities

The payment landscape across Central Asia, the Caucasus, Mongolia, and Afghanistan is at a pivotal juncture. Fragmented, cash-heavy models are giving way to integrated digital ecosystems at varying speeds across the region. The following table maps the dominant strategic focus by geography as of 2026.

Regional interoperability and cross-border infrastructure

Governments and regional bodies are actively working to connect domestically successful but isolated payment systems. Kazakhstan's Instant Payment System and Uzbekistan's Humo/Uzcard infrastructure dominate their respective domestic markets, with current efforts focused on cross-border QR code and API integration to allow seamless regional transactions. Afghanistan's inclusion in regional connectivity projects including infrastructure initiatives supported by neighbouring countries remains a long-term component of any comprehensive framework for connecting Central and South Asian financial markets.

Technology platforms and the competitive dynamic

Traditional banking is being challenged by technology-driven ecosystems that embed finance into daily life. Kazakhstan's Kaspi.kz and Georgia's TBC Pay have established dominant alternative payment methods that reduce reliance on global card networks. Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Georgia are also among the more advanced markets in rolling out API-based regulatory frameworks that allow fintechs to integrate directly with banks. Global technology players including Apple, Google, and China's Alipay  are influencing standard-setting for cross-border transactions along what is increasingly described as a Digital Silk Road.

The CBDC dimension

Kazakhstan, Georgia, and Azerbaijan are among the markets in the region actively exploring central bank digital currencies, in part as a mechanism to address the cross-border settlement bottleneck. Kazakhstan's digital tenge pilot has been among the most mature in the post-Soviet space, and the country has participated in SWIFT's CBDC interoperability research alongside the Hong Kong Monetary Authority. Whether CBDCs ultimately serve as a meaningful driver of regional financial integration will depend on the pace of regulatory harmonisation and the willingness of central banks to pursue coordinated frameworks.

Note on CBDC opportunity estimates: Figures attributing a specific dollar value to the regional CBDC opportunity (such as references to a "50 billion dollar" market) have not been traced to a primary institutional source and have been omitted from this analysis. Global CBDC market projections vary widely across research providers.

The regulatory horizon

Efforts by multilateral institutions to align AML/KYC standards and data privacy frameworks across the region remain work in progress. Regulatory convergence — particularly around digital identity recognition and open banking standards — is widely regarded as the primary bottleneck to scalable interoperability. The degree to which this convergence is achieved through regional coordination versus external pressure from global platform providers will be a key determinant of the region's financial sovereignty in the years ahead.

FT Finansal Teknoloji Perspective

Payment interoperability is the visible layer of a deeper integration challenge. Across the CAMCA region, the more consequential work is taking place in adjacent domains: open banking frameworks, digital identity standards, AML/KYC harmonisation, and data governance alignment. These are the foundations on which scalable, sovereign financial infrastructure will either be built or ceded to external platform providers. FT has been mapping this layer, through the Turkic World Financial Interoperability Report, FT Atlas, and the broader TTİL framework, and will continue to do so as the architecture takes shape.