ALMATY – Kazakhstan has built the core digital infrastructure for its financial sector and is now entering a new stage focused on developing new products, attracting new market participants and creating innovative business models, National Bank Governor Timur Suleimenov said at the Central Asia Fintech Summit 2026 in Almaty on Sept.
11. The summit, held on Sept. 11, brings together regulators, financial institutions and experts to discuss the future of financial markets. Photo credit: CAFS. Speaking at the opening of the third annual summit, Suleimenov said Kazakhstan’s financial sector has already reached a high level of digitalization, with more than 90% of payments made without cash and most basic banking and government services available through digital platforms.
National Bank Governor Timur Suleimenov. Photo credit: CAFS. The summit, held on Sept. 11, brings together regulators, financial institutions, technology companies and experts to discuss the future of financial markets, digital currencies, artificial intelligence, digital assets, cybersecurity and other areas of fintech.
Suleimenov said the National Bank’s approach has evolved from simply digitizing its own operations to actively encouraging innovation across the financial market. “We decided to change the approach altogether – instead of being the one who is pushed, to become the one who pushes the market,” he said, describing the regulator’s role as creating a “push” for the market and encouraging participants to move faster.
Kazakhstan builds digital financial infrastructure Kazakhstan has established a national digital financial infrastructure. It includes biometric identification, interbank payments, the digital tenge and mechanisms designed to protect citizens and businesses from financial fraud.
The infrastructure has been expanded through successive stages, with the digital tenge entering industrial use in 2023, the National Anti-Fraud Center launched in 2024 and new interbank and QR payment infrastructure introduced subsequently. The digital tenge is gradually being integrated into government financial processes, including public procurement, budget planning and the management of state funds.
Suleimenov said the National Bank, together with the government, intends to increase the volume of digital-tenge operations to 2 trillion tenge (US$4.4 billion) over the next 12 months. Suleimenov pointed to the interbank mobile payment system launched this year as one of the latest developments.
The system includes transfers by phone number and a unified QR code. Since its launch on July 19, it has processed more than 20 million transactions worth around 400 billion tenge (US$888 million), according to the National Bank.