Kazakhstan completes sweeping financial regulation overhaul, digital tenge expands

September 22, 2026 at 12:50 PM2 min

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

Kazakhstan has completed a sweeping financial regulation overhaul, with total GovTech coverage, a digital tenge and a new banking law resetting the financial infrastructure. The National Bank reports $3.1 trillion processed through national payment systems in 2025, with system uptime above 99.8%. The overhaul positions Kazakhstan 24th globally in the UN e-government index, up five places since 2020.

Key Facts

Kazakhstan ranked 24th in the UN E-Government Development Index in 2025, up five positions from 2020, and entered the top ten for online services.
National payment systems processed $3.1 trillion (1.6 quadrillion tenge) in 2025, with uptime exceeding 99.8%.
The digital tenge was legally recognized as the third form of national currency in January 2026, with issuance rising from $506 million in 2024 to $730 million by July 2026.
The National Anti-Fraud Center registered 180,000 incidents, prevented $249 million in theft, and returned $1.2 million to victims between July 2024 and July 2026.
A nationwide launch of interbank unified QR codes and P2P transfers by phone number for all retail banks took place on July 19, 2026.

GovTech Foundation

Kazakhstan's GovTech sector reached mass coverage, with digital government services available to 92% of citizens, including more than 1,200 services. 85% of the economically active population uses eGov directly from smartphones. The audience of e-government platforms grew from 5.8 million users in 2016 to 15 million in 2025. These figures are from the 'Fintech in Kazakhstan 2026' report presented by RISE Research with support from the National Bank of Kazakhstan.

Digital Tenge Expansion

The digital tenge was legally recognized as the third form of national currency in January 2026. Its issuance volume grew from $506 million in 2024 to $730 million by July 2026. Use cases are scaling to more than 100 major government projects, including targeted spending from the National Fund, digital VAT, SME lending through the Damu Fund, and road repair financing. The National Anti-Fraud Center, with 250 participants, registered 180,000 incidents, prevented $249 million in theft, and returned $1.2 million to victims over two years (July 2024 – July 2026). A pilot for preventive fraud detection using AI analytics is scheduled to start in the third quarter of 2026.

Payment Infrastructure

On July 19, 2026, Kazakhstan launched a nationwide interbank unified QR code and P2P transfers by phone number for all retail banks. Before the full-scale launch, the Interbank Mobile Payment System processed transactions worth over $340 million (160 billion tenge). The limit for one transfer operation is 500,000 tenge, and the base tariff of the National Payment Corporation for processing is zero. Cross-border transfers are planned for the end of 2026, with integration already implemented with Kyrgyzstan (ELQR via 8B.world) and memorandums signed with China's UnionPay, as well as systems in India and the UAE.