Improvement of commercial banks' brokerage, market-making and prop-trading activities on the basis of prudential differentiation

Abstract

Using 2025 data on Uzbekistan’s banking system, the article analyses the dynamics of banks’ securities portfolios, income structure and capital headroom. The share of investments and purchased securities in bank assets rose from 7.7 to 11.1 per cent in one year, an increase of about 73 per cent, while non-interest income reached 36 per cent of total income. Drawing on the Central Bank’s assessment of banks’ risk profiles and on the capital buffers introduced from 2026, the article proposes three tiers of permission for brokerage, market-making and limited proprietary trading, and a method that links the proprietary trading limit to capital held above regulatory buffers.