UK sanctions three more Kyrgyz financial sector cos

BISHKEK. Oct 9 (Interfax) - The UK has expanded its sanctions list wih respect to legal entities and individuals in Kyrgyzstan to include OJSC Processing KG, CJSC TokenSpot, and LLC Tsunami Payments, as well as Ulan Bukabaev, the head of Processing KG, the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office said in a statement.

Bukabaev heads Processing KG, which operates in the payment infrastructure and international settlements sector and previously served as CEO of the state-owned Ayil Bank (ABank). In its sanctions entry, the UK identifies the republic's Finance Ministry as the company's parent entity.

According to data from the Kyrgyz Justice Ministry, Bukabaev also heads LLC Processing KG.

The FCDO said there were grounds to suspect that Processing KG was or had been involved in obtaining a benefit from or supporting the Russian government by carrying on business of economic significance to the Russian government. The sanctions include an asset freeze, Internet Services Sanctions, Correspondent Banking Sanctions and processing payments and Trust Services Sanctions.

Ulan Bukabaev is subject to an asset freeze, director disqualification, travel ban and trust services sanctions.

In its entry for OJSC Processing KG, the UK authorities list two of the company's websites-processing-kg.com and vexpay.net. They thus directly link the VexPay payment platform to Processing KG.

CJSC TokenSpot has been registered by Kyrgyzstan's Financial Supervision Service as a virtual asset exchange, with Melis Umarkhodzhaev, a member of the board of directors of Bereket Bank, listed as its head. The crypto company is subjected to the same set of primary financial restrictions as Processing KG. The FCDO said there were grounds to suspect that TokenSpot was or had been involved in obtaining a benefit from or supporting the Russian government by carrying on business in a sector of strategic significance to the Russian government, namely the Russian financial services sector.

LLC Tsunami Payments obtained two licenses from the country's National Bank in 2024. One is for processing and clearing third-party payments and settlements, and the other for accepting and executing payments and settlements for goods and services via payment systems. According to the Kyrgyz Justice Ministry, Kenzhebek Takyrbashev serves as the company's director, while Yulia Kuznetsova is listed as its founder.

The UK added Kyrgyzstan's Eurasian Savings Bank, OJSC State Brokerage Company and OJSC Virtual Assets Issuer to its sanctions list in May 2026. OJSC Virtual Assets Issuer was the issuer of the gold-pegged stablecoin USDKG. Shortly after this, the company underwent re-registration and was renamed OJSC VAI. It emerged on October 7 this year that Kyrgyzstan had decided to discontinue the USDKG.

Previously, on August 20, 2025, the UK Foreign Office announced the imposition of sanctions against financial structures and cryptocurrency networks that, according to London, were used by Russia to circumvent Western restrictions through Kyrgyzstan. Sanctions were imposed on Capital Bank of Central Asia and its director Kantemir Chalbayev, as well as the cryptocurrency exchanges Grinex and Meer, which the UK said were involved in the infrastructure of the new ruble token A7A5. The British government also announced in February 2025 that it had added Kyrgyzstan's Keremet Bank to the sanctions list, allegedly to prevent Russia from using the international financial system to support its military efforts. In January 2025, the bank was added to the sanctions list of the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).

The European Union has also used the sanctions mechanism. In particular, Tolubay Bank and Eurasian Savings Bank have come under EU sanctions. The EU has banned them from any transactions with European counterparties and access to international payment systems. Sanctions against them came into force on November 12, 2025. The Kyrgyz companies Old Vector LLC and Grinex LLC were also included in the sanctions list. According to the European Commission, the first company is the issuer of the ruble stablecoin A7A5, and Grinex is a cryptocurrency exchange and a major platform for trading the A7A5 stablecoin.

The Kyrgyz Economy and Commerce Ministry saidi this week that it had decided to liquidate 51 legal entities due to sanctions-related risks.