Publication Details
Abstract
This article introduces a framework for strengthening incentives for innovation in commercial banking and for improving the national innovation environment in Uzbekistan. The study is based on a qualitative analysis of national banking reforms, the 2025 fintech policy package, Central Bank analytical materials, and recent international literature on open banking, RegTech, data governance, and cyber resilience. The central argument is that banking innovation should be treated not as a symbolic technology agenda but as a measurable management instrument capable of increasing fee income, reducing operating costs, improving risk quality, and strengthening trust and resilience. The results show that banks need three interconnected groups of incentives: external regulatory and institutional incentives, financial and economic incentives, and internal organizational incentives. For Uzbekistan, the most important external priorities are the practical rollout of open banking, a cost-saving RegTech architecture, a usable regulatory sandbox, and co-financing of shared infrastructure in cyber defense, fraud analytics, AML, and data quality. At the bank level, the critical levers are portfolio-based innovation funding, formal data governance led by a chief data officer, and cyber resilience embedded directly into innovation budgets. The proposed framework may help convert the current reform momentum into a scalable and safer financial innovation ecosystem.