Central Bank to fine banks for ATM service failures under new consumer protection rules

The issue was brought to the forefront by Qutbiddin Burkhanov, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Defense and Security, who highlighted that approximately 290,000 incidents concerning ATM malfunctions were registered in 2025. According to the senator, technical issues frequently prevented the machines from dispensing cash or resulted in trapped bank cards. Around 10,000 consumer complaints took more than 15 days to resolve, forcing over 3,000 citizens to file reports with law enforcement agencies. Consequently, police officers were repeatedly tasked with managing complications stemming from equipment failures at both state-owned and commercial financial institutions.

Responding to inquiries about preventive measures, the head of the Central Bank acknowledged the severity of the situation, describing the number of incidents as high. However, he contextualized the data by noting that ATMs across the country processed 341 million transactions in 2025, meaning problematic operations accounted for just 0.08% of the total volume.

The Central Bank chief explained that nearly 85% of these cases are not directly caused by the internal operations of the banks. Roughly, 20% of the disruptions occur when an ATM runs out of specific banknote denominations, while another 20% are caused by incorrect PIN entries or automatic card blocks. Network connectivity issues account for 15% of the errors, and power outages cause another 10%. Faults directly attributable to commercial banks and payment system operators make up the remaining 15%, which translates to about 46,000 incidents.

While the regulator cannot monitor every individual transaction, it is repositioning its supervision framework toward consumer rights protection rather than simply monitoring technical benchmarks. The Central Bank has notified commercial institutions of this trajectory, instructing them to treat cash withdrawal failures not as routine technical glitches, but as potential violations of customer rights.

A series of new regulatory documents has been finalized to enforce this standard. The first set of rules will take effect on August 6, legally empowering the Central Bank to impose financial sanctions on banks that fail to maintain adequate customer service standards at their terminals.

This follows a directive issued by the regulator in May, in which First Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank Nodirbek Saydullaev ordered banks and payment providers to overhaul their ATM infrastructure. He emphasized that instances where money is debited without cash being dispensed, cards are retained by machines, or fees are charged for incomplete transactions must be treated as critical, top-priority issues.