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Uzbekistan’s Ministry of Justice has announced that all advertising for bank loans and microcredit products must now include an explicit warning that late repayment can lead to financial hardship, following a law signed on 10 November.
The requirement covers every format in which credit products are promoted. In static advertisements — print, outdoor or digital — the warning must occupy no less than 10 percent of the total advertising space. In video materials, the disclosure must remain on screen for at least 10 percent of the advertisement’s running time.
Contracts to carry front-page warnings
The obligations extend beyond advertising into the loan agreement itself. Under the new rules, a standardised warning must appear on the first page of every credit contract, positioned before the main body of the text and taking up at least 30 percent of that page.
The warning is required to explain the consequences of default in plain language. According to the Ministry of Justice, borrowers must be told that the total amount owed can increase, that the lender may seek repayment through the courts, and that the borrower’s property could be seized to cover the debt. The notice must also state that funds held in bank accounts may be frozen and that a temporary travel ban could be imposed.
Context
The measures reflect growing regulatory attention to consumer lending in Uzbekistan, where the volume of retail credit has expanded rapidly in recent years. The new disclosure framework places the burden on lenders and advertisers to ensure that prospective borrowers are confronted with risk information before they sign, rather than discovering the consequences of default only after the fact.
The Ministry of Justice did not specify an enforcement date separate from the law’s passage on 10 November, nor did it detail penalties for non-compliance in the announcement cited by Kursiv Uzbekistan.