According to the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE), Kaspi Bank has obtained a license for custodial services from the Agency for Regulation and Development of the Financial Market (ARDFM).
Once a bank has a license for custodial services, it can keep securities like a depository does. However, unlike a depository that provides standard services, a custodian can offer a more individual approach to its clients and can broaden the scope of its activities at the expense of new services.
The ARDFM issued its indefinite license for Kaspi on October 11. No other details were provided and at the moment of publication, Kaspi hasn’t responded to the request to comment on whether it is going to operate like a broker or managing company.
Kaspi Bank is part of the fintech group Kaspi.kz. Among the biggest shareholders of the holding are Baring Vostok (26.1%), Mikhail Lomtadze (23.4%) and Vyacheslav Kim (22.3%). The company’s shares are listed on KASE, while its global depository receipts are traded on the London Stock Exchange (LSE).
Over the first six months of this year, Kaspi Bank reported $466.7 million in net profit, $1.2 billion in equity and $11.8 billion in assets. In 2022, Kaspi Bank made three dividend payouts: in March, June and September, but refrained from doing so in 2023.
The fintech company Kaspi.kz paid interim dividends of $1.56 per share for Q1 and Q2 of this year. In the first quarter, the total sum of dividend payouts was about $297 million or 80.2% of its revenue ($370.8 million), in the second quarter, this rate was about $296.7 million or 71.92% of net profit ($412.5 million).
