President signs decree on liberalizing conditions of bank deposits

February 22, 2008

President of Uzbekistan signed a decree on February 21, 2008 “On additional measures to liberalize the conditions and ensuring guarantees of deposits in commercial banks”.

The document aims at strengthening people’s trust to the country’s banking system and stimulating attraction of free funds to deposits in commercial banks.

In accordance with the decree, during 1 April 2008-1 April 2009 any individual may open a deposit account and place an unlimited amount of money in national or foreign currency, without providing documents about the origin of the money.

The money can be deposited anonymously, in both cash and transfer from personal accounts in foreign banks.

The banks, law-enforcement, tax and other controlling bodies have been prohibited to inquire about the sources of money.

Besides, all funds deposited in the shown period will be freed from all taxes and other obligatory payments, and cannot be checked by the tax bodies.

The decree pays attention to ensuring reliable guarantees of bank secrecy and measures to officials for revealing this secrecy.

Currently, there are about 30 banks in Uzbekistan. The number of their branches across the country makes up more than 8,000.

Since 2000, the funds of the population in commercial banks have increased 55 times to over UZS 1 trillion.