Practices

Fourteen services in four domains, for banks and financial institutions in Uzbekistan and Central Asia. Each domain lists its services, what you get at the end and the experience behind it.

Risk & Compliance

For: Chief Risk Officer, Head of Compliance, Risk Committee

A risk function is judged on two days: the day the regulator inspects and the day a loss arrives. We help you be ready for both.

Services

  • Risk management. Risk framework and appetite, stress testing and ICAAP, operational and model risk, and risk reporting the board acts on.

  • Credit risk & IFRS 9. Scoring and rating models, underwriting, early warning and collections, IFRS 9 expected credit loss, and readiness for CBU Regulation No. 3937 on asset classification and provisioning, in force from 1 January 2027.

  • Financial crime compliance. Anti-money-laundering and sanctions programmes, customer due diligence, tuning of screening and transaction monitoring, and preparation for correspondent bank due diligence.

What you get

  • Policies and methodologies written to CBU requirements and audit standard
  • Models your team can run, re-estimate and explain
  • Controls you can show a regulator, an auditor or a correspondent bank with confidence

Experience behind it

Our partners have been chief risk officer of a large state-owned bank in Uzbekistan, head of retail risk management at commercial banks including a subsidiary of an international banking group, and chief executive of a national credit bureau. They have worked in wholesale credit risk analytics at a global bank and in risk and compliance analytics at a Big Four firm in New York, and designed credit risk and non-performing loan frameworks for international financial institutions in more than ten countries, including Uzbekistan. Across the bench: financial crime compliance and sanctions roles at global and Gulf banks, and statistical modelling at doctoral level.

Finance & Capital

For: CFO, Treasurer, Chief Accountant, ALCO

The balance sheet is the bank's largest decision, and it is often made by default. We help you manage it on purpose, report it to IFRS standard, and fund it on good terms.

Services

  • Treasury & ALM. ALCO governance, liquidity, interest-rate and currency risk, hedging, funds transfer pricing and capital planning.

  • Finance & performance. Driver-based budgeting and forecasting, cost allocation, profitability by product and branch, and management reporting.

  • IFRS reporting. IFRS conversion, accounting policies and judgements, consolidation, reporting systems and audit readiness.

  • Capital markets & funding. Readiness for Eurobonds and credit ratings, credit lines from international financial institutions, investor relations and privatisation.

We are not an investment bank or a broker. On transactions we work alongside your arrangers and advisers, on your side of the table.

What you get

  • An ALCO that decides with numbers, and a budget the board believes
  • IFRS statements produced by your own team, on a timetable, from your systems
  • Documents and data ready before investors, lenders and rating agencies ask

Experience behind it

Our partners have led more than $700M of funding for Uzbek banks from Eurobond investors and international financial institutions. They have advised the Ministry of Finance of Uzbekistan on risk management, hedging, government liquidity and sovereign asset-liability management; advised a state-owned bank on investor relations, international debt and capital structure; and led treasury, financial risk and finance transformation work in CFO advisory at a Big Four firm in Europe. Across the bench: work on Uzbekistan's debut sovereign Eurobond; heading international financial institution relations at a state-owned bank; leading IFRS reporting at an Uzbek bank and IFRS conversion at a large state-owned bank; and teaching fixed income, derivatives and ALM.

Technology & Data

For: CIO, CTO, Chief Data Officer, Management Board

Banks in the region have spent heavily on technology and data projects that never reached the people who decide. We start from the decisions, choose what to build, buy or retire, and see it through to systems that run.

Services

  • IT strategy & architecture. IT strategy and target architecture, core banking selection and migration, integration and APIs, information security, and oversight of major implementations.

  • Digital banking. Strategy, customer journeys and launch of mobile banking, digital lending and CRM, with real-time fraud monitoring.

  • Data & regulatory reporting. Data governance, data warehouse and lakehouse build, management dashboards, and CBU regulatory reporting produced from systems rather than spreadsheets.

  • AI & analytics. Use cases worth funding, machine-learning models, generative AI tools for finance and compliance teams, and the governance to run them safely.

What you get

  • A technology roadmap the board can fund and the IT team can deliver
  • One trusted source for regulatory, management and risk reporting, with every figure traceable
  • Working systems and prototypes on your own data, not slides

Experience behind it

Our partners have served as acting CTO of a large state-owned bank, introduced risk management IT platforms at banks, run finance business intelligence and enterprise data management projects, and built AI prototypes for treasury management, debt collection and forecasting with large language models. Across the bench: chief information officer and chief technology officer roles at universal and digital banks and at a microfinance group operating in 12 countries; chief digital officer and IT director of an Uzbek state-owned bank, covering a core banking platform migration, an integration layer, CRM, a retail lending pipeline, real-time fraud monitoring and a mobile banking launch; running a national digital public services platform; bank transformation programmes at a global technology consultancy; launching a digital bank and founding fintech and AI companies; and building data warehouses and CBU regulatory reporting for Uzbek banks.

Strategy & Transformation

For: Chair, Supervisory Board, CEO, shareholders

Senior advice where strategy, capital and governance meet, and people who have been through bank crises when the balance sheet is under pressure.

Services

  • Strategy & governance. Strategy and operating model, board effectiveness and committee design, and governance for state-owned banks moving to private ownership.

  • Transformation delivery. Programme management office, organisation design, change management, and training for boards and management.

  • Restructuring & recovery. Asset quality reviews, restructuring and recapitalisation plans, non-performing loan strategy, recovery planning, and restructuring of state-owned enterprises.

What you get

  • A strategy with numbers behind it and an owner for each step
  • A board that gets the information it needs and uses its committees well
  • In a crisis, a fact base everyone accepts and a plan with options, costs and decisions in order

Experience behind it

Our partners have served as first deputy CEO of a state-owned bank in Uzbekistan, set up transformation offices and redesigned governance and organisations for state-owned and private financial institutions on international programmes, and coordinated a state-owned bank's strategy work with international consultants. Today they sit on the supervisory boards of a bank, a commodity exchange and credit bureaus in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Across the bench: deputy chairman of a state-owned bank; further supervisory board seats at Uzbek banks; and three decades of bank restructuring and crisis management in more than 50 countries, as a senior adviser at global restructuring firms.