A Tajik Bank Shuts Side Door for Russian Cardholders

Por Kulobiddin Norov — The Diplomat

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Humo Bank’s ultimatum to its Russian clients shows how Western sanctions can shape Tajikistan’s banking sector.

Tajikistan’s Humo Bank has warned its Russian clients that their cards will be blocked on October 1 unless they visit one of its offices in Tajikistan by September 30 to undergo biometric identification. “If you can’t come to Tajikistan in person and complete the identification, unfortunately, your card will be closed,” the bank told Russian news site Lenta.ru, advising clients to move their remaining balances to ruble cards before the deadline.

The bank cited the need to protect clients from fraud. A Russian client, however, told the Telegram channel Ostorozhno Novosti that the bank’s support staff explained it had decided to restrict services for “certain categories of non-resident individuals” whose cards were opened online. She said a transfer of about 300 euros had been stuck for a week and that the bank had stopped responding to her complaints. Humo offered her a new card if she traveled to Tajikistan, valid only for the duration of her legal stay and for no longer than a year.

With Visa and Mastercard gone from Russia since 2022, Russians have relied on cards issued in “friendly” countries to make payments abroad. When Kazakhstan limited non-resident cards to 12 months and required in-person issuance in January 2025, intermediaries moved their business to Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan. Humo and the International Bank of Tajikistan began offering remotely issued five-year cards in U.S. dollars and euros, sold through intermediaries for roughly 15,000 to 70,000 rubles.

Humo is a newcomer to banking. Owned by the Japanese investment holding Gojo & Company , the former microcredit deposit organization received a full banking license from the National Bank of Tajikistan in July 2025. It was also among the few Tajik financial institutions with access to Visa Direct, a real-time payment service that became a conduit for Russian money headed to Europe. An investigation by The Bell found last year that Sberbank clients could send money to Revolut and N26 accounts through Central Asian intermediaries, with the funds appearing to originate from Dushanbe or Tashkent.

The Humo ultimatum follows a year of Western pressure on Tajik banks. In October 2025, the European Union included Dushanbe City Bank, Spitamen, and Commercebank of Tajikistan in its 19th sanctions package, targeting banks closely linked to Russia’s financial system or processing cross-border payments that support the Russian economy. The three banks held roughly a fifth of all deposits in Tajikistan, and other Tajik banks responded by restricting transfers to Russia. In December, Revolut stopped accepting top-ups from cards issued in Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan for EU residents, citing payment systems’ classification of those countries as high-risk. The EU removed the three Tajik banks from its sanctions list in April 2026, with the National Bank crediting improved compliance and anti-money laundering standards.

For Dushanbe, the stakes go well beyond fees collected from Russian cardholders. Remittances, mostly from Tajik migrants in Russia, reached $5.8 billion in 2024, or the equivalent of 45.3 percent of Tajikistan’s GDP, the highest share in the world. By the end of 2024, over 90 percent of payments in Tajik-Russian trade were settled in rubles, and the head of the National Bank said Tajik banks work only with Russian banks not under sanctions. Tajikistan needs its financial channels to Russia open and its banks connected to SWIFT and Visa at the same time.

Neither Humo nor the National Bank has said whether the decision came from regulators, payment systems, or the bank’s own risk assessment. But a young bank that watched three of its peers cut off from European counterparties has every reason to shed remotely onboarded Russian clients before Brussels or Visa forces its hand. Russians will likely take their business to Kyrgyz and Uzbek banks, as they did when Kazakhstan closed its doors, until those banks face the same pressure.

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Tajikistan’s Humo Bank has warned its Russian clients that their cards will be blocked on October 1 unless they visit one of its offices in Tajikistan by September 30 to undergo biometric identification. “If you can’t come to Tajikistan in person and complete the identification, unfortunately, your card will be closed,” the bank told Russian news site Lenta.ru, advising clients to move their remaining balances to ruble cards before the deadline.

The bank cited the need to protect clients from fraud. A Russian client, however, told the Telegram channel Ostorozhno Novosti that the bank’s support staff explained it had decided to restrict services for “certain categories of non-resident individuals” whose cards were opened online. She said a transfer of about 300 euros had been stuck for a week and that the bank had stopped responding to her complaints. Humo offered her a new card if she traveled to Tajikistan, valid only for the duration of her legal stay and for no longer than a year.

With Visa and Mastercard gone from Russia since 2022, Russians have relied on cards issued in “friendly” countries to make payments abroad. When Kazakhstan limited non-resident cards to 12 months and required in-person issuance in January 2025, intermediaries moved their business to Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan. Humo and the International Bank of Tajikistan began offering remotely issued five-year cards in U.S. dollars and euros, sold through intermediaries for roughly 15,000 to 70,000 rubles.

Humo is a newcomer to banking. Owned by the Japanese investment holding Gojo & Company , the former microcredit deposit organization received a full banking license from the National Bank of Tajikistan in July 2025. It was also among the few Tajik financial institutions with access to Visa Direct, a real-time payment service that became a conduit for Russian money headed to Europe. An investigation by The Bell found last year that Sberbank clients could send money to Revolut and N26 accounts through Central Asian intermediaries, with the funds appearing to originate from Dushanbe or Tashkent.

The Humo ultimatum follows a year of Western pressure on Tajik banks. In October 2025, the European Union included Dushanbe City Bank, Spitamen, and Commercebank of Tajikistan in its 19th sanctions package, targeting banks closely linked to Russia’s financial system or processing cross-border payments that support the Russian economy. The three banks held roughly a fifth of all deposits in Tajikistan, and other Tajik banks responded by restricting transfers to Russia. In December, Revolut stopped accepting top-ups from cards issued in Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan for EU residents, citing payment systems’ classification of those countries as high-risk. The EU removed the three Tajik banks from its sanctions list in April 2026, with the National Bank crediting improved compliance and anti-money laundering standards.

For Dushanbe, the stakes go well beyond fees collected from Russian cardholders. Remittances, mostly from Tajik migrants in Russia, reached $5.8 billion in 2024, or the equivalent of 45.3 percent of Tajikistan’s GDP, the highest share in the world. By the end of 2024, over 90 percent of payments in Tajik-Russian trade were settled in rubles, and the head of the National Bank said Tajik banks work only with Russian banks not under sanctions. Tajikistan needs its financial channels to Russia open and its banks connected to SWIFT and Visa at the same time.

Neither Humo nor the National Bank has said whether the decision came from regulators, payment systems, or the bank’s own risk assessment. But a young bank that watched three of its peers cut off from European counterparties has every reason to shed remotely onboarded Russian clients before Brussels or Visa forces its hand. Russians will likely take their business to Kyrgyz and Uzbek banks, as they did when Kazakhstan closed its doors, until those banks face the same pressure.

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Fonte: The Diplomat