Banking sector reports improving performance in Kazakhstan

According to the Agency for Regulation and Development of the Financial Market (ARDFM), in 2023, almost all segments of Kazakhstan’s banking sector reported growth over the 2022 results except for mortgages and retail lending.

Consumer lending has risen by 34.1% to $22.8 billion, while equity capital of the entire banking sector grew by 31.3% to $15.2 billion.

Tier 1 capital adequacy ratio and Tier 2 reached 19.2% and 21.5%, which is a significant surplus over the existing standards.

Over the period from 2022 to 2023, banks reported a 28.9% increase in retail lending to $40.3 billion. Loans to the economy grew by 22.4% to $61.8 billion. Loans for entities grew by 11.9% to $21.4 billion, while aggregated loans for businesses, including individual entrepreneurs, increased by 16.7% to $24.8 billion.

Also, the banking sector has reported a 15.4% increase in assets to $113.9 billion. Highly liquid assets accounted for 29.3% of these assets ($33.4 billion).

The growth of the mortgage segment slowed down to 14.9% ($11.9 billion) compared to a 42.4% increase in 2022 due to changes in the social mortgage program 7-20-25 and a decline in the amount of pension savings withdrawn by Kazakhstanis. Also, banks reported a 13.3% increase in their liabilities ($98.8 billion) driven by deposits, which grew by 20.6% to $77.7 billion.

The National Bank data shows that Kazakhstani banks earned $4.8 billion in 2023, which is a 49.4% increase in revenue year-on-year. Halyk Bank reported the biggest result of $1.4 billion in revenue (+24.8%), followed by Kaspi – $1 billion (+31.4%), Otbasy Bank – $325.5 million (+46.5%), Jusan – $311.7 million (+58.8%) and Bank CenterCredit – $289 million (-10%).