From Almaty to Istanbul: Kazakh banks eye 100M users with new ecosystems

Last year, Turkey’s financial-sector indicators grew faster than inflation, signaling a stabilization of the country’s markets after authorities abandoned an unorthodox monetary policy framework. Amid the sector’s recovery, two major Kazakh players have expressed interest in Turkish financial institutions.

In mid-2023, the experiment with a monetary policy based on the belief that high interest rates cause inflation — rather than curb it — came to an end. The financial sector began a gradual recovery, and by the end of 2025, key indicators of Turkey’s banking sector — which accounts for 90% of financial system assets — outpaced inflation for the first time in several years.

Banking sector growth outpaces inflation

Last year, total banking-sector assets increased 43.8% to 46.9 trillion lira (about $1.2 trillion), significantly exceeding cumulative inflation of 34.9%.

The loan portfolio structure — Turkey’s regulator segments loans into three categories — remained largely unchanged in 2025. The corporate sector continued to account for the largest share (11.2 trillion lira), followed by SME and retail lending. In each segment, annual growth outpaced inflation, ranging from 41% to 48%.

Deposits remained the main source of funding; by the end of 2025, they accounted for 58.0% of liabilities.

In January, the monthly growth limit for corporate foreign-currency loans was reduced to 1% from 1.5%. Regulators introduced a differentiated approach for corporate loans in lira: for SMEs, the limit was raised to 2.5%, while for large businesses, it was lowered to 1.5% (from 2%). Banks that exceed these limits face stricter reserve requirements.

Despite these measures, foreign-currency lending continued to grow. In early March, regulators tightened restrictions further, lowering the growth limit to 0.5% and significantly reducing the list of exempt loans.

Monetary policy remains tight

In late 2025, the central bank amended reserve requirements to encourage banks to rely on long-term foreign-currency funding. For example, it set the reserve requirement for liabilities with maturities longer than five years at zero, while maintaining high rates for short-term liabilities (up to one year).

The Medium-Term Program for 2026-2028 — an annually updated document outlining the government’s operational plans — indicates that the country’s macroeconomic stance will remain unchanged this year. The central bank does not intend to ease monetary policy until inflation falls below 10% and expectations are firmly anchored. Until then, the benchmark rate is expected to remain high.

IPO activity moderates but remains resilient

Tighter monetary policy has not led to a decline in stock market activity.

Last year, 18 companies went public in Turkey, raising a combined 43.9 billion lira (about $1.1 billion). While this marks a slowdown from 2023 — when 54 companies raised 79.3 billion lira — and 2024 — when 34 companies raised 59.5 billion lira — it remains a solid level of activity.

The decline in IPOs is partly due to stricter requirements introduced by the Capital Markets Board of Turkey (SPK) at the end of 2024. For companies planning to file for an IPO in 2025, minimum thresholds for share capital (up 50%), assets (up 60%), and revenue (up 60%) were increased. Minimum market-cap requirements for listings in the Stars, Main and Submarket segments were also raised.

Under these tighter conditions, several large, financially strong companies went public. Examples include Pasifik Holding, a diversified group spanning development, logistics, energy and IT; Balsu Gıda, the world’s second-largest hazelnut processor; and Gülermak, an infrastructure firm involved in metro construction projects in India and the United Arab Emirates, as well as an expressway in Poland.

Kazakh investors expand into Turkey

Last year, two Kazakhstani financial institutions entered the Turkish market. Early in the year, Kaspi.kz announced the acquisition of a 65.4% stake in Hepsiburada for $1.1 billion. Turkey’s second-largest online marketplace by market share reported revenue of 84.6 billion lira and a net loss of 5.7 billion lira for the year. Over the past five years, the company returned to profitability only in 2023.

In March 2025, Kaspi.kz signed an agreement with Rabobank Group to acquire its Turkish subsidiary, Rabobank A.Ş., which ranked 46th by assets among 58 Turkish banks at the end of 2025. The deal remains subject to regulatory approval, with the parties expecting to close the transaction in mid-2026.

Alongside Kaspi.kz, Freedom Holding Corp. has entered Turkey, announcing the launch of a brokerage division in January 2025. The local regulator approved the creation of the new company under the Freedom Yatırım brand. According to Freedom Holding CEO Timur Turlov, this may be the first new license issued to a foreign broker in Turkey in the past 20 years.

The holding company said it planned to allocate 20% to 30% of its annual profits to developing its Turkish operations. In October 2025, Freedom Yatırım’s authorized capital was increased to 655 million lira from 325 million lira. To launch operations, the brokerage must still bring its IT infrastructure into compliance with local regulatory requirements.

Acquisition strategy and superapp rollout

Freedom has not limited its strategy to building a brokerage from scratch. In March 2026, the company announced plans to acquire a 99.3% stake in Turkish Bank A.Ş., which ranked 57th by assets at the end of 2025.

According to Timur Turlov, once regulatory approval is secured, the holding will begin adapting its Freedom SuperApp platform for the Turkish market. The app is designed to provide users with integrated access to banking, investment and lifestyle services.

The company expects to complete licensing and IT platform deployment this year, after which the bank will begin offering its core products to clients in Turkey.

Scaling a Kazakhstan-built ecosystem

After building a successful financial ecosystem in Kazakhstan, Freedom Holding aims to scale that model to the significantly larger Turkish market. Local consumers are financially sophisticated and well positioned to adopt the SuperApp format.

With a population of about 90 million, Turkey has more than 120 million registered digital bank accounts. Demand for brokerage services is also rising: the average monthly number of active investor accounts has nearly doubled over the past five years, increasing from 1.5 million in 2021 to 2.6 million by the end of 2025.

In 2025, individual investors in Turkey held about 30% of the total market value of shares listed on the Borsa Istanbul, underscoring the growing role of retail participation in the country’s capital markets.