The Agency for Regulation and Development of the Financial Market (ARDFM) has completed the evaluation cycle of Kazakhstan banks for 2025 and published the results of its risk-based supervision.
What happened
The regulator evaluated banks using the European SREP (Supervisory Review and Evaluation Process) methodology. The focus was not only on financial indicators but also on the level of corporate governance, internal control, and risk management systems.
Following the review, ARDFM announced the application of individual supervisory capital surcharges for banks. The rates range from 0 to 4.5%.
The decision on the surcharges was made by the Prudential Regulation Policy Committee jointly with the National Bank back in December 2025.
Country and market
Kazakhstan. SREP is a standard supervisory tool for developed markets. It allows the regulator to move away from formal reporting checks and assess the actual resilience of each specific bank’s business model.
Why it matters
A capital surcharge acts as a financial “safety cushion.” A bank is required to hold this money on top of baseline standards if the regulator identifies hidden risks in its processes. The poorer the management is structured, the higher the surcharge, and the more equity the bank must freeze instead of putting it into circulation.
ARDFM confirmed that all Kazakhstan banks maintained a sufficient margin of safety and comply with minimum requirements even taking the new surcharges into account.
The main signal here is that the regulator is forcing banks to pay with their own capital for weak risk management, making inefficient management economically disadvantageous.
What’s next
The regulator has prepared a consolidated report on the SREP results. Banks will have to adjust their business processes to reduce their individual surcharges in the next supervisory cycle and free up capital for lending.