Uzbekistan has granted permission for an additional private bank to take part in its ongoing project involving crypto cards on a national scale. 

As stated in a press release dated August 15, the National Agency of Perspective Projects (NAPP), responsible for regulating digital assets in the country, disclosed that JSV “Ravnak Bank” has been officially registered as a participant within the Special Regulatory Sandbox Regime.

Uzbekistan Welcomes Additional Bank to Crypto Card Project

By following the guidelines set forth by Uzbekistan’s Ministry of Justice on December 30, 2022, the Special Regulatory Sandbox Regime operates as a distinct structure; it enables particular entities within Uzbekistan’s cryptocurrency domain to provide unique services.

Under this regulatory framework, Ravnak Bank has been granted official permission to engage in the testing phase of the country’s crypto card initiative. In this capacity, the bank will create and deploy a virtual banking card known as “CRYPTO CARD – UzNEX”.

As stated by NAPP, this card will facilitate the automatic addition of funds to customers’ primary accounts through the swift liquidation of cryptocurrency assets within a digital wallet on a partnered crypto exchange platform.

As NAPP outlined, a significant aspect of the crypto card’s creation involves assessing its adaptability with different financial systems, including the Mastercard payment platform. The agency stated:

“The participant of the special regime will test the solution for integrating the automated banking system, the information system of the crypto-exchange, the processing center of the bank, and the MasterCard international payment system.”

Based on additional information provided by NAPP, Ravnak Bank becomes the project’s second participant by joining Kapitalbank which received approval in May 2023.

Ravnak Bank aims to initiate its testing phase by the conclusion of October 2023. At the same time, Kapitalbank had already commenced its testing in June 2023. NAPP anticipates both banks to launch the complete project by late December 2023.

Apart from these private banks, the current remaining member of the Special Regulatory. Sandbox Regime is UZINFOCOM that is an entity authorized to work on developing NFT certificates by utilizing distributed data registry technology.