Hamkorbank
In the coronavirus era, every financial institution is suddenly rushing to grow and solidify their digital footprint. But 30-year-old Hamkorbank appears to be learning new tricks faster than many of its peers.
As a consistently profitable, privately-owned commercial bank operating in state-heavy Uzbekistan, Hamkorbank is already something of a rarity. Increasingly, though, its digital offerings are creating the real buzz.
That is as much because of the savviness of the products as the bank’s keenest area of focus: small and medium-sized enterprises.
The SME sector is the one that president Mirziyoyev’s team is most anxious to grow. If Uzbekistan is going to churn out its share of tech unicorns, there’s a chance they will emerge from the orbit of 40,000 entities and 2 million individuals that Hamkorbank counts as clients.
Hamkorbank’s clientele breakdown is 53% SMEs, 33% corporations and 14% individuals. Its ambitions to finance job growth from the ground up in top-down Uzbekistan can be seen in its ties with development banks such as FMO.