Several foreign banks plan to open branches in Kazakhstan

Madina Abylkassymova, chair of the Agency for Regulation and Development of the Financial Market, presented a series of proposals regarding the liberalization of requirements for foreign investors during the Mazhilis meeting. In particular, a proposal has been made to reduce the list of required documents for opening a foreign bank.

The number of documents will depend on the rating of the foreign parent company. For foreign banks with a rating between ‘BB-’ and ‘A-’, the number of documents required to open a subsidiary bank is reduced from 24 to 17, and for opening a branch, it is cut from 20 to 10. For banks with a rating of ‘A-’ and above, the number of documents is reduced to 10 and 8, respectively. Additionally, to attract more investors, the asset requirements for foreign banks establishing branches are lowered from $20 billion to $10bn.

"We have negotiated with foreign banks. Several have expressed interest in opening branches in Kazakhstan. First, we check the reliability of their assets. We consider countries with which we have close economic ties, such as Asian and Arab countries, Turkey, and China," Abylkassymova stated during the plenary session of the Mazhilis. Moreover, a financial group from South Korea has received approval to open a bank in Kazakhstan.

"Three years ago, they established a microcredit organization, and now a bank will be built on its basis. The second candidate is from Qatar, which has acquired Bereke Bank. The third bank is ADCB, which ranks third in terms of asset volume in the UAE," the speaker added. Furthermore, the permitted activities for branches of foreign banks are being expanded to include currency exchange operations, custodial services, transfer agent activities, participation in syndicated financing, and the issuance of payment cards.

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