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A sweeping overhaul of Uzbekistan’s securities law has cleared its first reading in the Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis and was advancing toward a second reading as of 14 October, according to a November 2026 information memo published by KAP Depo. The draft law on the capital market — 16 chapters and 123 articles — would replace the 2015 Law on the Securities Market and set a target of attracting 10 trillion soums in investment to the stock market by 2030.
The National Agency for Prospective Projects (NAPP) presented the bill’s main provisions at a press conference on 12 August 2026. The agency says the reform is designed to create conditions for new financial instruments, draw long-term investors and improve market transparency for foreign participants.
A Broader Toolkit of Instruments
Beyond ordinary shares and bonds, the bill would bring derivatives, covered bonds, securitised bonds, sustainable development bonds and sukuk under a single regulatory framework. The derivatives category covers options, futures, forwards, swaps and contracts for difference. Covered bonds would be backed by a dedicated pool of assets such as mortgage loans, while sustainable development bonds would finance environmental and social projects.
Sukuk — securities structured to comply with Islamic finance principles — receive dedicated treatment. The bill provides for regulation of partnership-, lease-, trade- and agency-based sukuk structures, and proposes a sukuk-holder representative institution alongside a mechanism to certify that instruments meet Islamic finance standards.
Infrastructure and Investor Protections
The bill introduces a central counterparty that would stand as buyer to every seller and seller to every buyer in a transaction, reducing the risk of settlement failure between market participants. Custodial activity would require a licence, the Central Depository would gain expanded powers, and new institutions for bond-holder representatives and self-regulatory organisations would be established. Rating agencies, asset-management companies and investment funds would face licensing requirements, and investors would be categorised, with a distinct qualified-investor class.
To attract institutional and retail capital over the long term, the draft offers tax incentives: income of certain investment funds and specified transactions in covered and securitised bonds would be exempt from taxation, while preferential rates on income from corporate bonds and sukuk are proposed through 2038. The precise conditions for those concessions will depend on the final text of the law.
The bill also permits international financial organisations to issue bonds inside Uzbekistan and sets out conditions for domestic companies to access foreign capital markets.
A Market That Has Already Outgrown Its Rules
The reform is driven in part by rapid market growth that the 2015 framework was not built to handle. Equity issuance rose from 189.7 trillion soums in 2023 to 265.1 trillion soums in 2025, reaching 269.4 trillion soums by 1 July 2026. Corporate bond issuance expanded more sharply, from 1.06 trillion soums in 2023 to 3.93 trillion soums in 2025 and surpassing 7 trillion soums by mid-2026. Stock-exchange trading volume nearly sextupled over the same three-year period, climbing from 2.9 trillion to 17.6 trillion soums.
The drafting process drew on technical input from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the International Finance Corporation, the Asian Development Bank, the Islamic Development Bank, the United Nations Development Programme, the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO), the United States Department of Commerce and the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The final terms governing new instruments, tax relief and the entry into force of individual provisions will be settled once the legislative process is complete.