By the end of 2026, Kazakhstan’s largest bank plans to introduce several new business lines to the market, ranging from digital assets to Islamic finance. At the same time, Halyk Bank is changing its approach to evaluating its retail business, shifting focus from net profit to daily user activity.
What happened
The bank is preparing to launch a crypto card, an updated installment card, and its first Islamic banking products. Kiril Bachvarov, Deputy Chairman of the Management Board at Halyk Bank, announced this in an interview with Inbusiness.kz.
In parallel, the bank is developing its own AI assistant to communicate with customers in text chats and voice channels. The project relies on the bank’s proprietary cloud infrastructure and computing power. The main KPI for the neural network is to achieve a customer satisfaction level comparable to that of a live operator.
Earlier, Finteqstan reported that the bank is implementing AI for employee assessment; now, the technology will automate interactions with retail clients and generate personalized offers in real time.
Country and market
Despite its bet on artificial intelligence and the fact that 92–93% of sales occur through its mobile application (SuperApp), Halyk Bank is preserving its physical infrastructure in Kazakhstan. The network consists of 473 branches and around 4,500 ATMs.
Some ATMs in remote regions remain unprofitable, and cash collection sometimes requires the use of helicopters. The bank continues to service them to ensure the population has access to cash.
The bank explains its high consumer loan rates (around 30%) by a funding cost of 18% and an embedded cost of risk of 4–5%.
Why it matters and what’s next
The bank’s retail division is changing its key metrics. Instead of traditional market share and profit, the number of active clients, the daily app audience, and the frequency of using non-financial services—such as booking tables via Halyk Restaurants—are taking center stage.
Kiril Bachvarov himself notes that the bank is already joking about the end of its digital transformation and the beginning of its artificial intelligence transformation.
It seems Halyk’s strategy reflects a broader market shift: the focus is moving from issuing loans to retaining customers within a closed ecosystem using daily lifestyle services.
The task of a major financial app today is to ensure that the customer does not have to look for services outside the banking environment.
