How do people in the CIS and Caucasus pay online?
The common thread is that international card schemes are rarely the whole story. Each country has built its own rails or its own local layer on top of bank cards, and a checkout designed around Visa and Mastercard alone misses much of domestic demand.
In Kazakhstan, Kaspi.kz is the centre of daily payments. Its super app combines banking, a marketplace and payments, and its payments platform processed KZT 44.2 trillion in 2025. Shoppers pay with Kaspi QR or Kaspi Pay and confirm in the app, while Halyk’s Homebank and international cards cover much of the remainder.
In Uzbekistan, almost every payment starts with a Humo or Uzcard card, the two domestic schemes, and more than 68 million bank cards were in circulation at the start of 2026. Customers rarely type card numbers; they pay through Payme, Click and similar wallets that sit on top of those cards and confirm with an SMS code or in the app. Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan have their own national card schemes, Elcart and Korti Milli, covered in their country guides.
In Georgia, Visa and Mastercard cards from the large Georgian banks carry most online payments, often through Apple Pay or Google Pay on bank-hosted payment pages. Bank of Georgia alone reported more than 1.8 million retail digital monthly active users at the end of 2025. Account-based payments are newer: Keepz became the first fintech with an open banking licence in 2024 and offers QR and pay-by-bank payments.
In Azerbaijan, the Central Bank counted 22 million payment cards at the start of 2026, and e-commerce card operations were worth AZN 86.4 billion in 2025. Apple Pay and Google Pay payments grew by 67% that year, and the m10 wallet from PashaPay reports 3.5 million registered users.
In Armenia, cards run on the national ArCa system as well as Visa and Mastercard, and the Idram wallet is accepted by QR at more than 22,000 points of sale. Payment terminal networks such as Telcell let customers fund cards and wallets in cash.
What rules shape online payments across the region?
Foreign sellers are inside the tax net almost everywhere. Since 1 January 2026, Kazakhstan’s new Tax Code applies 16% VAT to foreign companies that sell goods online or provide services to individuals in Kazakhstan, with registration due within a month of the first payment from a Kazakh customer, according to KPMG Kazakhstan. Uzbekistan charges its standard 12% VAT on electronic services that foreign companies supply to individuals there, according to PwC. Georgia has charged 18% VAT on digital services that non-residents supply to Georgian consumers since July 2021, with no threshold and a simplified online registration, according to EY. Armenia has required non-resident suppliers of electronic services to individuals to register and account for 20% VAT since January 2022. Azerbaijan charges 18%, and since 23 August 2026 a non-resident selling online must register within 30 days once its yearly turnover with consumers passes the manat equivalent of USD 10,000; below that, banks and payment providers withhold the VAT at source, according to GRATA International.
Data rules differ. Kazakhstan’s personal data law requires personal data to be stored in databases located in the country, with transfers abroad allowed under conditions, according to DLA Piper. Uzbekistan narrowed its localisation rule in March 2026 to biometric, genetic and telecom subscriber data, and in July 2026 approved a list of 49 countries for simplified data transfers.
Consumer law sets the refund rules. Kazakh shoppers can return unused non-food goods within 14 calendar days of delivery, and Uzbekistan’s Law on Electronic Commerce of 2022 covers online contracts, delivery and refunds to buyers. Georgia’s consumer rights law, in force since June 2022, gives 14 calendar days to withdraw from a distance purchase and requires the trader to refund within 14 days of the notice. Armenia added a 14-day cancellation right for remote purchases from 1 July 2026, and its electronic contracts must make the payment obligation explicit at the order button. The country guides give the detail and exceptions.
How does Omno route payments in the CIS and Caucasus?
Omno connects these rails through one API. Routing rules can send Kaspi payments, Humo and Uzcard cards, and Payme and Click wallets to providers that support each one, send international cards to the acquirer your rule sets for each issuer, and present local methods such as Keepz, m10 and Idram where they fit the customer and the merchant. Domestic schemes such as ArCa go only to acquirers that accept them, with cascading to the next provider in the rule if one is unavailable or rejects the request. PSP eligibility rules send payouts only to providers that support them for each method and currency. Webhooks carry the final status of every payment and payout, and the routing-decision log shows which provider handled each payment for reconciliation in every local currency.