We are launching the latest edition of our banking rankings. The first layer focuses on scale — comparing banks by the size of their balance sheets.
As of May 2026, Kazakhstan’s banking sector comprised 23 second-tier banks. Combined assets, excluding those of the Development Bank of Kazakhstan, reached KZT 73.0 trillion.
That was up KZT 9.6 trillion, or 15.2%, from May 2025, when total assets stood at KZT 63.4 trillion.
The sector also remains highly concentrated:
▫️The three largest commercial banks account for 54.0% of total banking assets.
▫️The top five hold 69.1%.
▫️The top ten control 89.0%.
In practice, this means the overall direction of Kazakhstan’s banking sector is largely determined by the country’s biggest lenders.
The five largest banks are:
1️⃣ Halyk Bank — KZT 21.0 trillion (+KZT 408.9 billion, or +2.0% month-on-month), representing 28.7% of sector assets.
2️⃣ Kaspi Bank — KZT 10.0 trillion (+KZT 111.0 billion, or +1.1% month-on-month), representing 13.7%.
3️⃣ Bank CenterCredit — KZT 8.4 trillion (+KZT 192.9 billion, or +2.3% month-on-month), representing 11.6%.
4️⃣ Otbasy Bank — KZT 5.8 trillion (+KZT 228.1 billion, or +4.1% month-on-month), representing 8.0%.
5️⃣ ForteBank — KZT 5.2 trillion (+KZT 253.0 billion, or +5.1% month-on-month), representing 7.2%.
The strongest growth in assets over the past year in absolute terms came from:
▫️Halyk Bank — up KZT 2.4 trillion (+12.9%).
▫️Kaspi Bank — up KZT 1.5 trillion (+18.0%).
▫️Bank CenterCredit — up KZT 1.4 trillion (+19.7%).
▫️Otbasy Bank — up KZT 1.1 trillion (+24.0%).
▫️Bank RBK — up KZT 572.0 billion (+24.1%).
Only a handful of banks recorded a decline in assets over the past year:
▫️Eurasian Bank — down KZT 107.1 billion (-3.7%).
▫️Alatau City Bank — down KZT 74.4 billion (-2.2%).
▫️VTB Bank Kazakhstan — down KZT 24.6 billion (-9.4%).
▫️BNK Commercial Bank — down KZT 1.8 billion (-6.8%).
Kazakhstan’s banking system remains highly concentrated. As a result, lending activity, deposit dynamics, and risk appetite are shaped primarily by a relatively small group of large institutions. In that sense, size is more than just a ranking metric — it is a measure of which banks have the greatest influence over the direction of the sector.
This article was translated with the assistance of artificial intelligence.
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