TBC Uzbekistan launches car buying in app in Tashkent

TBC Uzbekistan has rolled out TBC Avto across its app after a pilot period, allowing customers to buy a car through the banking app.

The launch expands the group's consumer offering beyond core banking and payments in Uzbekistan.

Users can browse vehicles from partner dealerships in the TBC UZ app and choose either full payment or financing. Once a customer selects a car, a TBC Avto concierge helps complete the remaining steps, including accompanying the buyer to the dealership and handling paperwork through to completion.

The process can take about 24 hours from vehicle selection to collecting the car. The service is initially available through partner dealerships in Tashkent.

In Uzbekistan, car purchases have often involved in-person visits, manual documents and long processing times. TBC Uzbekistan is positioning the product as a way to move more of that journey into a digital channel while keeping an assisted final step for the dealership visit and formalities.

Broader rollout

TBC Avto follows an initial pilot and is now launching with a broader feature set. The service sits within the same mobile app TBC Uzbekistan uses for its retail banking and payments products.

TBC Uzbekistan is part of London-listed TBC Bank Group. In Uzbekistan, it says it has close to 6 million monthly active users and is the top banking and payments brand in Tashkent by recognition.

The group has also been expanding into adjacent categories. In recent months, it introduced insurance products and completed majority-stake deals in BILLZ, a retail management software business, and OLX Uzbekistan, an online classifieds platform.

Those moves indicate the bank is trying to build a broader consumer and small-business ecosystem in one market rather than rely only on deposits, payments and lending. Adding car discovery and finance also pushes the app closer to a marketplace model, linking users with third-party dealers while keeping financing within the bank's own channel.

Local market

For banks and fintech groups in Central Asia, the expansion reflects a wider effort to keep customers within one app for more daily transactions. In this case, TBC Uzbekistan is combining dealership inventory, credit and in-person support in a single process.

The concierge element is notable because it shows the company is not trying to remove the offline step entirely. Instead, it is using staff support to manage the final handover and documentation at the dealership, where much of the friction in car buying remains.

The launch also gives TBC Uzbekistan another way to grow lending volumes in a secured consumer category. Vehicle finance can offer a larger-ticket product than many everyday banking transactions, although it has not disclosed target volumes or the number of dealerships involved.

Nika Kurdiani, Chief Executive Officer of TBC Uzbekistan, described the service as a different approach to a familiar purchase process.

"This expanded offering enables people to complete the purchase of a vehicle and drive it away in around 24 hours, reflecting our vision to take the hassle out of financial services and make people's lives easier. More than just another loan product, it represents a fundamentally new car-buying experience for Uzbekistan, transforming a complex, often lengthy process into a quick, accessible and transparent journey. Over the past six years, we've pioneered a new way of delivering financial services and are excited to bring this approach to more daily tasks, expanding our reach and allowing us to help our customers in more ways," Kurdiani said.

The car-buying launch comes alongside other product additions in the app, including the AI assistant Lola, which has been rolled out across its services. TBC Uzbekistan has also been developing a subscription service intended to bundle benefits for users across its products.

With TBC Avto now moving beyond the pilot stage, the business is extending its app into a high-value retail purchase that has largely remained outside digital banking journeys in Uzbekistan. Starting in Tashkent, customers can now select a vehicle, arrange payment and complete dealership paperwork through one service.