Kazakh banks approve 60.5% of large business loan applications in H1 2026

September 14, 2026 at 10:50 AM2 min

This digest was compiled by AI from multiple sources — links to the originals are below.

Kazakh banks approved 60.5% of loan applications from large businesses in the first half of 2026, compared with 44.1% for the business sector overall, according to the Association of Financiers of Kazakhstan. Large companies' loan applications rose 8.7% year-on-year, while new lending to them reached 4.9 trillion tenge, up 10.5%. The average rate for large business loans climbed to 19.6% from 18.1% a year earlier, even as the overall business average hit 22%.

Key Facts

Banks approved 60.5% of large business loan applications in H1 2026, versus 44.1% for all businesses, according to the Association of Financiers of Kazakhstan.
Large business loan applications rose 8.7% year-on-year, while overall business applications grew only 1.2%.
New lending to large businesses reached 4.9 trillion tenge in H1 2026, up 10.5% from a year earlier.
The average rate on large business loans increased to 19.6% from 18.1%, compared with 22% for the business sector overall.
Large businesses' share of new corporate lending fell to 42.8% from 46.7%, and their share of the total loan portfolio dropped to 36.4% from 40.1%.

Approval Rates

The approval rate for large business loan applications reached 60.5% in the first half of 2026, up from 56.3% a year earlier, according to the Association of Financiers of Kazakhstan. The average approval rate across all business segments was 44.1%, leaving a gap of 16.4 percentage points. The association attributes the higher approval rate to the stronger creditworthiness of large borrowers. In the second quarter, the share of large companies with normal financial condition rose to 70.5% from 68.3%, while those in critical condition fell to 15.7% from 17.9%.

Lending Volume and Rates

Banks issued 4.9 trillion tenge in new loans to large businesses in H1 2026, a 10.5% increase year-on-year. The average interest rate for large business loans rose to 19.6% from 18.1%, while the overall business average reached 22%. Short-term loans of up to one year accounted for 77.5% of large business lending, with long-term loans making up 22.5%. The average loan size to a large business reached 15.1 billion tenge, up nearly a quarter year-on-year.

Market Share Shift

Large businesses' share of new corporate lending fell to 42.8% from 46.7%, while their share of the total loan portfolio dropped to 36.4% from 40.1%. The decline in new lending share reflects faster growth in other business segments, while the portfolio share drop also stems from high turnover of short-term loans and reclassification, according to the association. Total outstanding debt of large businesses to banks decreased 4.4% since the start of the year to 7.1 trillion tenge. Overdue loans among large borrowers stood at 1.94%, below the 3.02% average for all businesses.