The Central Bank on Friday announced the revocation of licenses for the right to carry out banking activities from two private joint-stock commercial banks - Turkiston and Hi-Tech Bank.

The resolutions of the board of the regulator on the revocation of licenses were adopted on October 7.

Turkistonbank ranks 26th in the banking system of Uzbekistan in terms of assets, Hi-Tech Bank - 29th.

Decisions on both banks were made in accordance with Article 20 of the Central Bank Law for committing violations provided for in Articles 54 and 77 of the Banks and Banking Activity Law, in particular:

• lack of sufficient reserves against possible losses on assets by the bank;
• incurring losses by banks in amounts exceeding 50% of their regulatory capital;
• violation of the legal rights and interests of consumers of banking services;
• accounting with violations that do not allow to reflect the real financial position of banks and lead to a violation of reporting information;
• non-execution in due time of the instructions of the Central Bank on the elimination of gross violations in the activities of banks;
• repeated commission of gross violations after the imposition of a fine by the Central Bank for such violations.

The resolutions of the Board of the Central Bank have approved the composition of the liquidation commissions of two banks, on the basis of the Banks and Banking Law, the powers to manage banks, including the powers of general meetings of shareholders, supervisory boards and boards, were transferred to these commissions.

According to the statistics of the Central Bank, as of September 1, 2022, the share of problem loans in Turkistonbank was at 94.8% (651 billion soums), in Hi-Tech Bank - 93.4% (116 billion soums).

Turkistonbank had been operating in the banking services market since 1998, Hi-Tech Bank - since 2010. As of September 1, the balance of deposits in Turkistonbank was 328 billion soums, in Hi-Tech Bank - 6 billion soums.

Information for individual depositors

According to Guarantees for Protection of Citizens' Deposits in Banks Law, deposits of individuals in banks are guaranteed by the Fund for Guaranteeing Citizens' Deposits in Banks.

All funds of depositors in two banks will be returned as a matter of priority in full after two months.