BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 8. Some 84 million payment cards were in circulation in Kazakhstan as of August 1, 2026, according to the National Bank of Kazakhstan.
Debit cards were the most widespread type, accounting for 81.6% of all payment cards in circulation. Credit cards accounted for 15.5%, while debit cards with a credit limit and prepaid cards made up 2.8%.
In July 2026, the total volume of transactions using payment cards issued by Kazakh issuers amounted to 19.9 trillion tenge ($43.8 billion), while the number of transactions reached 1.3 billion.
Compared with the same period in 2025, the number of cashless transactions increased by 7.5% to 1.3 billion operations, while their volume grew by 8.4% to 17.6 trillion tenge ($38.7 billion).
At the same time, payment cardholders conducted 18.9 million cash withdrawal operations totaling 2.3 trillion tenge ($5.1 billion). The number of cash withdrawal operations decreased by 6.2% compared with July 2025, while their volume fell by 6.3%.
The largest share of cashless transactions in Kazakhstan was conducted through internet and mobile banking, accounting for 77.6% of the total number and 89.6% of the total volume of cashless payments and money transfers. POS terminals accounted for 21.9% of the number and 10% of the volume of cashless payments and money transfers.
Cash withdrawals were mainly carried out through ATMs, which accounted for 98.3% of the total number and 88.5% of the total volume of cash withdrawal operations.
As of August 1, payment card issuance was carried out by 18 banks and Kazpost JSC. These organizations issue and distribute payment cards of international systems, including VISA International and MasterCard Worldwide, as well as cards of the local Kaspi.kz system.
Conversion from Kazakh tenge into US dollars was made at the rate of $1 = 454.31 tenge.
According to Trend analyses, the figures point to a broader shift in consumer payment behavior and the growing role of digital financial services in Kazakhstan. The continued growth of cashless payments could contribute to further development of the country’s digital banking and payment ecosystem as online and mobile channels become increasingly important for everyday transactions.
