Kazakhstan reports biggest increase in Visa and Mastercard card issuance since summer 2022

Kazakhstani banks ramped up the issuance of cards within the Mastercard and Visa payment systems in January, according to the National Bank. This came amid reports that the validity period of cards issued to foreigners would be limited to one year.

As of Jan. 1, there were 54.6 million international payment cards in circulation in Kazakhstan, increasing to 56.7 million by Feb. 1. The month-on-month (MoM) increase was 2.1 million or 3.9%. According to Rbc.ru, this was the sharpest pace of increase since April 2023, when the number of cards rose by 4%.

A similar rate — 3.6% — was observed in June 2022, when many Russians rushed to Kazakhstan to obtain a card that could be used worldwide. Last year saw an average increase of 0.8% MoM in cards in circulation.

Seventeen banks and Qazpost, the national postal operator issue cards within international systems such as Visa International, Mastercard Worldwide, UnionPay International and American Express International, as well as the domestic Kaspi.kz system.

Out of the total number of cards, Visa accounts for 40.8 million and Mastercard for 14.5 million. The volume of domestic payment system cards increased by 108,000 in January, reaching a total of 26.8 million.

In January, the volume of payment card transactions reached 1 billion transactions and $29.9 billion in total value. Cardholders conducted 17.6 million cash withdrawals, amounting to $3.8 billion.

In mid-January, Kazakhstan’s Agency for Regulation and Development of the Financial Market (ARDFM) set a one-year expiration limit on bank cards issued to foreigners. However, the amendment does not apply to already issued cards, businessmen, investors, diplomats or foreigners holding a Kazakhstani residence permit. The new policy has been in effect since Jan. 20.

On Jan. 21, several Kazakhstani banks temporarily suspended the issuance of cards to foreigners, citing the need to adjust their operations.