Another New Bank to Appear in Kazakhstan

The microfinance organization KMF has officially announced its re-registration as a full-fledged bank, Orda.kz reports.

According to information published on the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE) website on August 6, a branch of the state corporation Government for Citizens issued documents to Microfinance Organization KMF JSC confirming its transformation into KMF Bank JSC.

KMF has operated in Kazakhstan since 1997 and was regarded as the largest player in the microfinance market.

The company itself estimated the total volume of microloans it had issued at 1.9 trillion tenge, with more than 700,000 borrowers. Its main clients were small business owners and farmers. In 2024, the MFO became a joint-stock company and issued bonds worth 20 billion tenge.

Plans to convert KMF into a full-fledged bank were first announced in 2023 by Madina Abylkasymova, head of the Agency for Regulation and Development of the Financial Market. KMF Bank will officially become a bank once it receives a license from the Agency to conduct banking operations.

Earlier, the first new bank in Kazakhstan in the last 15 years appeared when another microfinance institution, BNK Finance Kazakhstan LLP, was transformed into BNK Commercial Bank. BNK focuses on providing services to businesses, with its initial assets valued at 25.8 billion tenge.

Original Author: Nikita Drobny