In 2025, Uzbekistan's population encountered 290,000 failures when withdrawing cash from ATMs, Senator Qutbiddin Burkhonov, head of the Senate Committee on Defense and Security, announced on May 18 during a plenary session of the Senate of the Oliy Majlis.
According to him, as of February 1, 2026, over 42,000 ATMs and infokiosks were installed in the country, with 55 such devices per 100,000 people. For comparison, Georgia has 108, Russia 105, and Japan 103 per 100,000.
Despite the expansion of financial services, problems persist that cause public discontent, Burkhonov noted. These include cards getting stuck in ATMs during withdrawals and funds being debited without cash being dispensed.
"Worst of all, thousands of people face weeks of inconvenience due to technical failures when withdrawing cash from ATMs. Meanwhile, mechanisms for quickly resolving their problems have not been implemented in practice," Burkhonov said.
Short-term studies conducted in Andijan based on voter complaints confirmed the existence of such cases, he added.
The senator emphasized that the main issue is not the number of failures but the lack of rapid resolution mechanisms.
"Yes, there are many ATMs today, and the number of users is huge. But the main problem is that for these 290,000 cases, no service system has been established to ensure quick refunds and retrieval of plastic cards from ATMs in a short time," Burkhonov stated.
Citizen complaints to banks regarding such incidents typically take 1 to 15 business days to process. In 2025, out of 290,000 complaints about various ATM transaction failures, 97,000 were resolved within two business days, 22,000 within 4–6 business days, 9,700 within 7–15 business days, and nearly 10,000 took over 15 days.
"Now imagine: a person urgently needs to withdraw 500,000 soums from an ATM to buy goods or medicine, but they are forced to wait up to 15 days for the bank to resolve their issue. How can this be explained?" Burkhonov asked.
He also noted that many citizens turn to law enforcement agencies (the 102 system) for quick resolution. In 2024–2025 and the first quarter of 2026, 3,100 complaints related to ATM operations were recorded.
"That is, law enforcement agencies, alongside their crime prevention duties, are also being involved in solving problems like retrieving stuck cards from ATMs," Burkhonov said.
He stressed that 290,000 cases should prompt serious reflection by responsible authorities. The Central Bank recently issued recommendations to commercial banks to address ATM-related issues, but this is insufficient, Burkhonov noted.
"Given that this problem directly affects public sentiment, tough measures must be taken in this direction. The Central Bank should be the main leader in this process," he said.
The senator called for increasing bank accountability, legally defining complaint processing deadlines, and implementing mechanisms for prompt refunds of citizens' funds.
He also asked the Central Bank leadership to pay special attention in next week's Senate report to the work done to resolve these issues and their results.
"Most importantly, our citizens should not suffer due to problems in the banking system, and law enforcement agencies should focus more on their primary task — crime prevention," Burkhonov concluded.
Source: www.gazeta.uz