Several of Kazakhstan’s largest banks have suspended mortgage lending after the central bank raised the base rate to 18%, except Freedom Bank and Otbasy Bank, which specializes in housing savings and offers mortgages at preferential rates. Halyk Bank, Nurbank and ForteBank have temporarily suspended their mortgage programs. Bank CenterCredit continues…
Zaman Bank, Kazakhstan’s Islamic bank, rolled out its first retail product this year — unsecured Islamic consumer loans with a maximum loan amount of 3 million tenge (about $5,500) — while progress on Islamic mortgages remains to be seen, according to the bank’s CEO Gulfairuz Assayeva. Notably, the bank made…
On Oct. 10, Kazakhstan’s National Bank raised its base rate by 1.5 percentage points (p.p.) to 18%, with a range of +/–1 p.p. The previous level of 16.5% was set in March 2025 and maintained following the bank’s Monetary Policy Committee meetings in April, June, July and August. The regulator…
Kazakhstan’s stock market capitalization reached 39.6 trillion tenge (about $72 billion) as of Sept. 1, 2025. The figure grew 5.1% in August and 20.4% year to date. Shares of companies listed on the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE) index — Kaspi.kz (+6.6%), Kazatomprom (+8.7%) and ForteBank (+15.5%) — were the main…
The value of Kazakhstan’s net international reserves reached $55.5 billion at the end of September 2025, according to data released by the National Bank. Soaring gold prices played a major role in the increase. The reserves increased by $3.3 billion (6.3%) month-on-month. Since the start of the year, they have…
In the first six months of 2025, Kazakhstan experienced a significant outflow of money, with 321.2 billion tenge (about $590 million) transferred abroad through international money transfer systems, according to a report from the National Bank. In contrast, only about $190 million was sent into Kazakhstan from overseas, highlighting a…
Binance Kazakhstan plans to integrate its services into the country’s existing payment infrastructure. The company’s general manager Nurkhat Kushimov told Kursiv.media that users will be able to pay with crypto via QR codes at banking terminals. «Binance has its own tool, Binance Pay, which works on the same principle as…
The Alem Crypto Fund has launched in Kazakhstan. It was established by the Ministry of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Development and is managed by Qazaqstan Venture Group. The fund is registered with the Astana International Financial Centre. The fund’s primary objective is to invest in long-term digital assets and create…
The first regulated stablecoin pegged to the offshore Chinese yuan, AxCNH, has launched in Kazakhstan. The move is part of China’s effort to utilize blockchain to streamline cross-border trade and reduce its reliance on the U.S. dollar, according to Yang Guang, chief technology officer of China’s state-owned blockchain network, Conflux,…
Kazakhstan has launched its first tenge-pegged stablecoin for use in cryptocurrency exchanges and crypto card payments. The pilot project was rolled out under the National Bank’s regulatory sandbox. National Bank Chairman Timur Suleimenov announced that Intebix, one of the sandbox participants, will issue the tenge-backed stablecoin in partnership with Solana,…
Kazakhstan’s bank loan portfolios are expanding much faster than deposits. New minimum reserve requirements taking effect in September are designed to cool this growth. Kursiv Research reviewed the latest statistics (as of Aug. 1, 2025) to assess banks’ preparedness for the new rules and identify which are most and least…
Artificial intelligence may be reshaping industries, but it is not yet ready to replace stock market analysts, according to Erlan Abdikarimov, head of research at Freedom Finance Global. «The stock market is too complex to hand over entirely to algorithms,» Abdikarimov said. He explained that effective use of AI requires…
As India celebrates Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 75th birthday today, curiosity grows about his wealth and background. Born on Sept. 17, 1950, in Vadnagar in the western Indian state of Gujarat, Modi rose from humble beginnings to become India’s prime minister for three consecutive terms. His journey is often portrayed…
About 50% of regular deposits are under $27,000, according to the Kazakhstan Deposit Insurance Fund (KDIF). According to the fund’s methodology, there are three types of retail deposits denominated in tenge: mass (up to 15 million tenge), medium (from 15 million to 50 million tenge) and large (over 50 million…
BNK Commercial Bank — formerly the microfinance organization BNK Finance Kazakhstan and recently transformed into a bank — has received a written directive from Kazakhstan’s Agency for Regulation and Development of the Financial Market (ARDFM) for violating prudential ratios, the agency reported. The former MFO received its banking license on…
Analysts at the Association of Financiers of Kazakhstan (AFK) have significantly raised their one-year forecast for the dollar to 573 tenge, up from 548.5 in the previous outlook — a deterioration of 24.5 tenge for the local currency, according to an AFK statement. They have also slightly downgraded their forecast…
Kazakhstan’s net international reserves, which include gold and foreign exchange assets, rose in July for the first time in two months, increasing 1.45% from the previous month to $50.3 billion, according to data from the National Bank. Reserves are up 15.54% since the start of the year. Gross international reserves…
Kazakhstan is turning to cutting-edge technology to tackle inflation, deploying a powerful supercomputer to analyze price data and monitor commodity flows across the country in real time. Ablaikhan Ospanov, acting chairman of Kazakhtelecom, the national telecommunications operator, announced at a recent government meeting that the company’s supercomputer will be used…
KMF, Kazakhstan’s largest microfinance organization (MFO), has reregistered as a bank and changed its name to KMF Bank, according to a statement published on the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE) website. The company received a re-registration certificate on Aug. 1, 2025. From July 30 to Aug. 3, the MFO suspended all…
ForteBank has postponed its extraordinary general meeting of shareholders from Aug. 14 to Oct. 29. The key issue to discuss will be the bank’s reorganization in the form of Home Credit Bank’s (HCB) accession to ForteBank. The meeting’s agenda remains unchanged. Shareholders are to approve amendments to the methodology for…
Central banks around the world purchased 22 tons of gold in June, according to the latest data from the World Gold Council (WGC). The majority of those purchases, more than 70%, were made by Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. Uzbekistan added 9 tons to its gold reserves, marking a sharp shift after…
A corporate conflict is intensifying in Kazakhstan over control of the Eurasian Financial Company (EFCO), which owns Eurasian Bank and Eurasia Insurance Company. Mounissa Chodieva, daughter of Eurasian Resources Group (ERG) co-owner and EFCO shareholder Patokh Chodiev, has joined a growing legal battle involving top figures connected to the firm.…
Forbes Kazakhstan has updated its ranking of the country’s richest people following a series of bold transactions in the banking sector. ForteBank owner Bulat Utemuratov rose from sixth to third place. The assets of Vyacheslav Kim and Timur Turlov also showed significant increases. Kim, co-owner of Kazakh fintech giant Kasp.kz,…
Kazakhstan’s First Deputy Prime Minister Roman Sklyar has dismissed claims that the recent sharp depreciation of the tenge was caused by comments made by Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov regarding the projected exchange rate of the national currency. On July 15, during a press conference, Bektenov stated that under the cabinet’s…
