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…
Kazakh companies face double taxation and full veterinary, sanitary and customs checks when exporting goods to other Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) members, Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov said at the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council meeting in Cholpon-Ata, Kyrgyzstan. «In a number of cases, unimpeded transit through the territory of EEU member states…
In the first six months of 2025, Lotte Rakhat Confectionery reported a profit of about $3.9 million, down 53.4%, or $4.4 million, from the same period last year, according to the company’s filing on the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE) website. The drop was largely due to a 23.4% fall in…
Investment management company Fonte Capital has announced the listing of the Fonte Bitcoin Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) on the Astana International Exchange (AIX), according to a statement on the company’s website. An ETF is an exchange-traded investment fund that is traded in a way similar to ordinary shares. Typically, it…
Kazakhstan has received $365 million in dividends from Eurasian Resources Group (ERG) that had been frozen in Luxembourg, Finance Minister Madi Takiyev said at a recent government briefing. «This year, we received $365 million in dividends for previous years,» Takiyev said. «For 2024, the financial statements have just been completed;…
Mobile rates for Altel and Tele2 customers in Kazakhstan are off-limits to government scrutiny until the end of 2026, following a court decision tied to an international agreement with Qatar. Mobile Telecom-Service (MTS), which owns the Altel and Tele2 brands, won its case in the Almaty Court of Appeal, which…
The co-founder of the Save the Caspian Sea movement, Vadim Ni, has filed a lawsuit against Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Energy, demanding that the production sharing agreements for the country’s largest oil projects — Kashagan, Tengiz and Karachaganak — be made public. Ni told Kursiv.media that the case has already reached…
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…
KMG PetroChem, a subsidiary of Kazakhstan’s national oil and gas company KazMunayGas (KMG), has signed an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract with Tecnimont S.p.A. of Italy and Consolidated Contractors International Company (CCIC) of Lebanon for the construction of a gas separation facility (GSF) at the Tengiz field, KMG announced.…
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…
Kazakh investors can now buy shares in major American companies such as Amazon and Google for as little as $1, thanks to a new feature rolled out in the Tabys app by the Astana International Exchange (AIX), according to the Kazakhstan Association of Minority Shareholders (QAMS). The Tabys app, in…
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…
An administrative court in Astana has overturned a $4.2 billion environmental fine imposed on the North Caspian Operating Company (NCOC), the operator of the Kashagan oil field, citing procedural violations by the regional environmental authority. The court emphasized that its decision to nullify the order issued by the Atyrau Regional…
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.…
Eight OPEC+ countries — Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Algeria and Oman — have agreed on a quota increase of 547,000 barrels per day (bpd) for September, according to a statement on the organization’s website following the Aug. 3 meeting. In particular, Kazakhstan’s quota…
Leading Turkish e-commerce platform D-MARKET Electronic Services & Trading (Hepsiburada) has reported a net loss of 1.1 billion Turkish lira (approximately $27 million) over the first six months, up 1.5 times from the same period in 2024 ($17.5 million), according to its financial results. At the same time, Hepsiburada’s revenue…
Oil majors developing the Kashagan field — Kazakhstan’s largest oil and gas field on the Caspian shelf — have won a $4.2 billion environmental dispute in an Astana appeals court, according to Bloomberg. Sulfur dispute The case stemmed from a 2022 fine imposed by Kazakh authorities over excessive sulfur storage…
President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev believes the country has strong potential to become the leading air hub in the region. To achieve this, he emphasized the need to boost both passenger and cargo transportation. Speaking at an event dedicated to Transport Workers’ Day, the president highlighted that the most critical…
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…
U.S. President Donald Trump has signed an executive order imposing a 25% tariff on imports from Kazakhstan, part of a broader trade move affecting more than 70 countries. The order, titled «Further Modifying the Reciprocal Tariff Rates,» was published July 31, 2025, on the White House website. Previously, imports from…
