Octobank launches Apple Pay and Google Pay payment acceptance for partners

Octobank has expanded the functionality of its online acquiring: the bank’s partners can now accept payments via Apple Pay and Google Pay both on websites and in mobile apps. The customer only needs to confirm the payment on their smartphone, the bank’s press service said.

The launch comes at a time when the Uzbek market has moved close to working with global digital wallets. The legal groundwork was laid by Law No. ZRU-1125 of 26 March 2026, which came into force on 27 March: the document clarified which categories of personal data must be stored within the country and which may be processed abroad provided that security requirements are met. In late July, the Central Bank reported that, following the adoption of the amendments, the regulator had begun talks with Apple and Google together with banks and the national operators Humo and Uzcard.

The environment in which such services are in demand is growing in parallel. Over five years, the volume of e-commerce in Uzbekistan has increased 22-fold, while the number of e-commerce platforms rose from 36 at the beginning of 2024 to 115 by the start of 2026. The more purchases move online, the higher the cost of every extra step in the payment process — especially in areas where the customer decides quickly, as with buying tickets.

“The ability to pay for a plane ticket in literally a few taps on your smartphone is no longer just an extra option, but an essential part of modern service. It is important for us that some of the first to adopt this solution were major companies from the aviation and travel industries. This is a good example of how payment technologies can make the customer’s journey from choosing a service to paying for it far simpler,” said Vladimir Vasilyev, Managing Director for Cross-Border Money Transfers and E-commerce at Octobank.

Among the first major companies to enable this payment method were the airlines Uzbekistan Airways and Centrum Air. Their passengers can now use digital wallets when buying air tickets. All transactions run on tokenized data — the actual card details are not passed on to the merchant.

“Thanks to this solution, our customers can now pay for air tickets via Apple Pay and Google Pay without having to enter their bank card details manually. This is another step towards improving the online purchasing process. We value our cooperation with Octobank and its contribution to the development of modern digital payment solutions for Uzbekistan’s aviation industry,” the press service of Uzbekistan Airways JSC noted.

For the bank itself, this is not the first expansion of digital services this year. In August, Octobank opened up conversion operations and payments in 16 key currencies to legal entities — covering the UAE, China, Singapore, the eurozone countries, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Poland, the Czech Republic, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand and Japan. For businesses, this meant being able to settle with foreign counterparties directly in the currency of the foreign trade contract. A day earlier, clients of the bank’s partner financial institutions gained access to transfers between Uzbekistan and Turkey, China, Israel and Tajikistan. Octobank itself has been on the market since June 2001.

Apple Pay and Google Pay are available within Octobank’s online acquiring and can be enabled by companies that accept payments online.