National Bank of the Republic of Kazakhstan

The National Bank of the Republic of Kazakhstan is the central bank of the Republic of Kazakhstan and represents the upper (first) level of the banking system of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The National Bank is accountable to the President of the country, but within the limits of the powers granted to him by law, it is independent in its activities.

2024

Digital Transformation Strategy Presentation

In early October 2024, the strategy of the Digital National Bank of Kazakhstan was presented. The project aims to transform the country's financial sector and create a modern ecosystem capable of supporting the growth and stability of the economy by introducing advanced management technologies and practices.

The initiative was told by the head of digital transformation and adviser to the Chairman of the National Bank of the Republic of Kazakhstan Binur Zhalenov. According to him, the main idea is to give further impetus to the digitalization of the financial sector. The strategy includes five main areas.

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1. National Digital Financial Infrastructure

We are talking about the development of a reliable retail payment system that will ensure uninterrupted and secure transactions. Within this area, the Open API platform is being implemented, solving several tasks at the same time. In particular, it will provide an opportunity for citizens to manage their finances in various banks through a single interface, simplifying interaction with financial institutions. It is said about interbank transfers by phone number and interbank QR payments.

2. SupTech Implementation

Supervisory Technology, or SupTech, is the technology used by regulators to improve the efficiency of control and oversight of financial market participants. Such systems, as noted, allow digital monitoring of all supervised organizations in real time, which makes it possible to proactively identify violations and risks, reducing the likelihood of abuse and mistakes. In this area, Kazakhstan intends to introduce artificial intelligence and machine learning tools for predicting risks, automated data assessment, accelerating decision-making, etc.

3. State-of-the-art data management infrastructure

The strategy provides for the formation of a scalable data platform. Information is planned to be collected once and provided to professional market participants. This approach is expected to help reduce administrative costs and improve the quality of decisions made. The infrastructure being prepared will improve the responsiveness to macroeconomic changes and ensure efficient data management in the financial sector. It is planned to introduce improved AI-based analytics, which will ensure improved macroeconomic forecasts. The ultimate goal is to increase confidence in financial decisions made by the National Bank of Kazakhstan.

4. Development of technology platforms and ICT infrastructure

It is said that technology platforms and flexible architectures (Open APIs and microservices) will play an important role in adapting financial institutions to market changes. These solutions will help you quickly integrate new functions and services, and automate critical business processes using end-to-end processing (STP). Many tasks will be performed on the basis of cloud sites. Implementing scalable systems will help you cope with growing volumes of data and transactions. At the same time, the security and stability of information systems will be ensured.

5. Developing a culture of innovation and implementing flexible management practices

Applying the OKR (Objects and Key Results) concept will allow each employee to clearly understand their tasks and contribution to the achievement of the company's common goals. This approach is expected to create a motivating environment and accelerate innovation at all levels of the banking system.^[1]

Appointment of Binur Zhalenov as Head of Digital Transformation

At the end of September 2024, Binur Zhalenov was appointed head of the digital transformation of the National Bank of Kazakhstan, as well as an adviser to the chairman of the regulator. Read more here

2023: Appointment of Timur Suleimanov as head of the National Bank

In early September 2023, Timur Suleimenov was appointed the new chairman of the National Bank of Kazakhstan instead of Galymzhan Pirmatov. Suleimenov's candidacy was unanimously supported by deputies at a meeting of the Senate of the Parliament of Kazakhstan. Read more here.

2021: Issue of 20 thousand tenge banknote with a portrait of N. Nazarbayev

In December 2021, the National Bank of Kazakhstan issues a banknote with a face value of 20,000 tenge ($46) depicting the first president of the country, Nursultan Nazarbayev.

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