On December 27, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev signed a decree extending the deadlines for privatization of several government-owned banks.

In particular, the deadlines for the sale of government stakes in Asakabank, UzSanoatQurilishBank (SQB), and Aloqabank have been postponed until 2025. The respective amendments were made to the president’s for Banking System’s Reforming Strategy for 2020-2025 decree (May 13, 2020).

Initially, it was planned to put the entire government stake of UzSanoatQurilishBank, the second largest bank in the country, up for auction before 2023, and then by the end of 2023. Later, a decision was made to reduce the government's stake to less than 50% through privatization by the end of 2024, but this did not happen.

Currently, the bank is controlled by the Uzbekistan Fund for Reconstruction and Development (the country's sovereign wealth fund, 82.19%), the Ministry of Economy and Finance (13.48%), Uztransgaz (1.21%) and other stakeholders (2.26%).

As reported earlier, the privatization of Asakabank is due for the end of 2025 - previously it was planned until the end of 2023. In May 2024, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev announced that an agreement on the privatization of Asakabank had been signed with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

Asakabank now belongs to the Fund for Reconstruction and Development (88.22%), the Ministry of Economy and Finance (10.85%), the Bukhara Oil Refinery (0.73%), Uzavtosanoat (0.1%), Uzagrosugurta (0.08%) and Uzbekinvest (0.02%).

The IPO of Alokabank was planned to be held on the stock exchange before January 1, 2025 (previously - by July 1, 2023). The stakes in this bank are owned by: the Reconstruction and Development Fund - 61.8%, Uzbektelecom - 22.03%, the Information and Communication Technologies Development Fund - 6.3%, the Ministry of Economy and Finance - 4.32%, the Government Unitary Enterprise Center for Electromagnetic Compatibility - 2.11%, others - 3.44%.