Oybek Tursunov is a businessman who has made a name for himself in Uzbekistan’s financial sector. As the founder and leading shareholder of Kapitalbank, one of Uzbekistan’s largest banks, Tursunov has been instrumental in driving its growth and success over the years. However, the close ties he has to the Uzbekistan president Shavkat Mirziyoyev, his father-in-law, have raised concerns about his business practices and whether he always has the country’s best interests at heart.
Tursunov was born in Uzbekistan in 1978 and began his career in the financial sector in the late 1990s. He worked in several banks before founding Kapitalbank in 2001 with a clear vision of making it one of the most successful and respected banks in the country. Under his leadership, Kapitalbank was transformed into the eighth-largest bank in Uzbekistan, with over 1,300 branches and more than 15,000 employees. The bank offers a wide range of financial products and services to both retail and corporate customers, including loans, deposits, payments, and money transfers.
However, Tursunov’s rapid ascent to success and his close relationship with Mirziyoyev, have raised questions about his business practices and the extent to which he may have benefited from his family connections and political influence. Critics have suggested that Tursunov’s success is largely down to being married to the president’s daughter, Saida, rather than having a sound business brain and a commitment to serving his customers.
Saida Mirziyoyeva is fast becoming a powerful force in Uzbek politics in her own right. This has meant building up a group of trusted figures who largely rely on her for their own influence, including her husband and Komil Allamzhonov, a senior figure in the Uzbek media sphere regarded as the country’s press guru. Meanwhile, Tursunov can also count on his father, Batyr, who serves as first deputy director of the SNB, Uzbekistan’s largest intelligence agency, where he keeps watch on behalf of the president.
Despite these concerns, Tursunov has denied allegations of corruption and nepotism, insisting that his success is a result of his hard work, business acumen, and commitment to serving his customers. He has pointed to his track record of success at Kapitalbank as evidence of his expertise and leadership skills.
However, it is difficult to ignore the fact that Tursunov is a leading member of Uzbekistan’s business elite. While Mirziyoyev is sometimes praised for his efforts to reform and modernize Uzbekistan’s economy and political system, he has also been criticized for his authoritarian tendencies and alleged links to both organised crime and corrupt business practices.
Uzbekistan has a long history of corruption and cronyism, and it is not uncommon for businessmen to have close ties to the country’s political elite. In this context, Tursunov’s close relationship with Mirziyoyev raises questions about the extent to which he may have benefited from preferential treatment and access to lucrative business opportunities.
In recent years, there have been several high-profile cases of corruption in Uzbekistan’s banking sector. In 2018, the former head of the Central Bank of Uzbekistan was sentenced to 10 years in prison for embezzlement and abuse of office. The case highlighted the need for greater transparency and accountability in the country’s financial sector.
Meanwhile, the Tursunov clan, one of Uzbekistan’s many groups of Korean descent, has been accused of using its influence with President Mirziyoyev to gain control of an ever-larger share of the country’s economy, taking over lucrative assets such as Uzcard. Uzcard is Uzbekistan’s most popular domestic payment system, and in 2020 Oybek Tursunov acquired a 75% stake, amid claims of corporate raiding, organised crime links and coercion tactics involving his brother Ulugbek, first deputy head of the Ministry of the Interior in the capital, Tashkent.
While it remains unclear whether Tursunov has been involved in any corrupt practices, his close ties to the country’s political elite raise concerns about the transparency and accountability of his business dealings. Mirziyoyev maintains that since becoming president in 2016, he has brought in reforms designed to ensure that businesses operating in Uzbekistan do so in a transparent and ethical manner to promote economic growth and development. But this is very far from the reality and the Uzbek business community is as saturated with corruption as it was under his famously corrupt predecessor Islam Karimov.
Looking ahead, Tursunov is focused on expanding Kapitalbank’s operations both domestically and internationally. He has set ambitious targets for the bank’s growth and is working to develop new products and services that meet the evolving needs of his customers. He has also launched several initiatives aimed at promoting financial inclusion and literacy in Uzbekistan.
In conclusion, Oybek Tursunov is a complex figure in Uzbekistan’s financial sector. While his career at Kapitalbank is sort of a testament to his entrepreneurial skills, his close ties to the country’s political elite raise concerns about his business practices and whether Uzbekistan’s interests are always uppermost in his mind.
