Bank deposits by Kazakhstani citizens have declined by 2.5%, according to data from January of this year. Analysts from Ranking.kz say that the portfolio “lost weight” by $1.1 billion and amounted to $44 billion at the end of January 2024. Experts say that it’s a common seasonal occurrence, when after December inflows, there’s an outflow of money from second-tier banks, which is called a “calendar pit.”
Correspondingly, according to analysts’ data, there’s only one financial institution among the largest banks of Kazakhstan that had an inflow of deposits in January — Home Credit Bank’s $725 million (+1.2%). Experts say that was expected, considering the bank has kept rates on its retail deposit products above the average level on the market. Currently the bank’s offered rates on savings products range from 14.5% to 16.7% per annum.
All other large Kazakh banks showed reductions in their portfolios of individual deposits. However, at Bereke Bank, the volume of savings deposits barely changed (-0.02%) and remained at $951 million. By year-on-year measure, Bereke Bank’s portfolio of retail deposits has doubled.
Out of 21 Kazakhstani banks and four foreign financial institutions, Russia’s VTB Bank saw an increase of 36.6% to $128 million, and two Islamic banks — Al Hilal, whose deposits rose 1.5 times to $8.1 million, and Zaman Bank, up 8.5 times to $2.4 million — showed strong deposit growth.
In total, the volume of all bank deposits in Kazakhstan at the end of January 2024 amounted to $76.5 billion — which is 1.4% less than at the end of 2023.
