In 2023, the volume of cashless payments in Kazakhstan surged to $315bn, marking a 20% increase over the national GDP and a 39% rise compared to the previous year, according to the Association of Financiers of Kazakhstan (AFK).
The proportion of cashless payments throughout the country increased from 82.5% to 86.2%. The Almaty region (+9.9 p.p.), Turkestan (+9.5 p.p.), and West Kazakhstan (+5.4 p.p.) regions accounted for the highest growth rates.
Online payments were the most popular (83%), followed by payments through POS terminals (10.9%) and QR codes (6.0%).
Experts at the AFK believe that the number of cashless transactions can grow even further due to an increase in new payment cards (+9.5mn per year), POS-terminals (+210,100), and the growing popularity of payment via QR ($18.8bn in 2023).
Government Measures
The association considers that as the government continues to target hidden revenue and unregistered entrepreneurs, even those industries accustomed to cash will eventually switch to cashless payments shortly.
In December 2023, the Ministry of Finance warned that starting January 1, 2024, the tax service would monitor those who receive more than 100 monthly money transfers for a certain time. This led to many reports of entrepreneurs refusing to accept mobile payments. The Committee of State Revenue said it would penalize businesses refusing to accept cashless payments.
Card Usage
According to the AFK, in 2023, the country reported 18% more debit cards (60.3 mn) compared to 51.3 mn in 2022. Credit cards also increased from 11.8 mn in 2022 to 12.2 mn last year (+3.9%). Given that the number of international payment systems is growing (+6.8 mn) faster than the number of cards issued by local companies (+2.7 mn), their market shares changed slightly.
Under the National Bank’s classification, local cards in Kazakhstan are local cards by Citibank Kazakhstan and the Kaspi.kz payment system, although debit cards by Kaspi are cards issued within the Visa payment system.
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