Kazakhstani authorities report sharp increase in cashless payments

AFK believes that the number of cashless payments will grow further / Photo: Shutterstock

In 2023, the volume of cashless payments in Kazakhstan amounted to $315 billion, which is a 20% increase over the national GDP and a 39% increase compared to last year, according to the Association of Financiers of Kazakhstan.

The share of cashless payments increased from 82.5% to 86.2% throughout the country. The Almaty region (+9.9 percentage points), Turkestan (+9.5 p.p.) and West Kazakhstan (+5.4 p.p.) region accounted for the highest growth of the rate.

Online payments are the most popular (83%) followed by payments through POS terminals (10.9%) and QR codes (6.0%).

AFK’s experts believe that the number of cashless transactions can grow even more due to an increase in new payment cards (+9.5 million per year), POS-terminals (+210,100) and the growing popularity of payment via QR ($18.8 billion in 2023).

In addition, the association believes that as the government continues to go after hidden revenue and unregistered entrepreneurs, even those industries used to cash will eventually switch to cashless payments in the near future.

In December 2023, the Ministry of Finance warned that starting January 1, 2024, the tax service would keep an eye on those who receive more than 100 money transfers per month for a certain time. Then, people reported many cases of entrepreneurs refusing to accept mobile payments. In turn, the Committee of State Revenue said it would punish those businesses refusing to accept cashless payments.

According to the AFK, in 2023, the country reported 18% more debit cards (60.30 million) compared to 51.30 million in 2022. The number of credit cards also increased from 11.80 million in 2022 to 12.20 million last year (+3.9%). Given that the number of international payment systems is growing (+6.80 million) faster than the number of cards issued by local companies (+2.70 million), their market shares changed slightly. Under the National Bank’s classification, local cards in Kazakhstan are local cards by Citibank Kazakhstan and the Kaspi.kz payment system, although debit cards by Kaspi are cards issued within the Visa payment system.

On the other hand, the AFK says that the number of active internet banking users decreased in 2023 from 22.90 million to 22.70 million (-1.1%). Last year, Kazakhstanis withdrew $50.90 billion in cash from ATMs and banks compared to $48.4 billion withdrawn in 2022 (+5%).