TBC Uzbekistan launches digital car loans in secured lending push
TBC Uzbekistan, the digital banking arm of London-listed TBC Bank Group, has moved into secured lending with the launch of a digital car loan product, marking a significant expansion of its financial ecosystem in Uzbekistan. The product, currently live in pilot to select customers, allows borrowers to apply via mobile app, receive a preliminary decision within one minute, and drive away a vehicle within 24 hours.
The move signals TBC Uzbekistan's ambition to build what it describes as a "two-sided ecosystem" for consumers and businesses across Central Asia, stacking auto finance alongside its existing debit and credit card products, a business banking suite for SMEs, and the Payme payments platform. With nearly six million monthly active users and profitability achieved within two years of launch, the company is pressing into a lending vertical it characterises as largely untapped.
From payments to secured lending
The car loan product is the foundation of TBC Avto, a dedicated motorist vertical the company says will eventually cover the full vehicle ownership lifecycle, from financing and purchase through to ongoing services. Customers submit applications through the TBC UZ mobile app, then complete paperwork at a partner dealership with a TBC representative present. The 24-hour turnaround time is a direct challenge to traditional bank lending processes in the region, where manual underwriting and branch visits remain the norm.
CEO Nika Kurdiani framed the opportunity in terms of the segment's immaturity: "The auto lending market remains largely untapped, and we see strong potential for growth as we scale our lending product and bring new products to market that enable us to build out a comprehensive offering for motorists."
The launch also broadens TBC Uzbekistan's revenue base beyond transaction fees and unsecured credit. Secured lending carries different risk and margin characteristics, and entering this segment diversifies the company's exposure while deepening user engagement within its ecosystem.
The convergence angle: frontier fintech meets underbanked infrastructure
The broader strategic context for the Disrupts reader is one of frontier-market digital finance reaching an inflection point. Uzbekistan, with a population of around 36 million and historically low formal credit penetration, represents the kind of market where a scaled mobile-first ecosystem can compress decades of credit infrastructure development into a few years. TBC Uzbekistan's model, building banking, payments, and now secured lending into a single app-based stack, mirrors the super-app playbook that has reshaped consumer finance in Southeast Asia and Latin America, but is being executed in a Central Asian market with far less incumbent competition.
For macro investors, the relevant read-across is to the broader question of capital flows into underbanked frontier economies. Sovereign and institutional capital has been moving into digital finance platforms in markets where smartphone penetration has outrun traditional banking infrastructure: TBC Uzbekistan's recognition by CNBC and Statista as one of the world's top fintechs suggests the model is being watched beyond the region. The parent company's London listing (LSE: TBCG) provides a liquid entry point for investors who want exposure to Central Asian digital finance without navigating local market structures.
Separately, the rollout of the AI Assistant Lola, described as a private banker embedded across the ecosystem, points to where TBC Uzbekistan is heading on the product side: AI-mediated financial guidance layered over a payments and lending stack. As the company scales its TBC Plus subscription bundle, the commercial logic is one of ecosystem lock-in, where the car loan is not just a credit product but a hook into a broader suite of motorist and financial services. That convergence of credit, AI-assisted advice, and subscription commerce in a single mobile environment is increasingly the template for the next generation of digital banks in emerging markets, and Uzbekistan may yet become a proof-of-concept for the model's replication across the wider Central Asian region.