Kazakhstan

. Best Domestic Bank: ForteBank

Home Credit Bank has a business model that is socially responsible almost by definition. The bank has built a strong consumer loan business, offering customers competitive rates in a market segment that often encourages predatory lending. It has since moved into lending to small and medium-sized enterprises, helping fund the growth engines of the future.

This was a category that almost every bank wanted to win; lending to small and medium-sized enterprises is a big part of the growth plan for almost all banks in Kazakhstan at the moment.

You get a bit of a sense of deja vu when interviewing bank chief executives in Kazakhstan. They all talk about digital, they all talk about SMEs, few of them care about investment banking. They all have an app to brag about and a story about how client acquisition has become ‘streamlined’.

Kazakhstan’s banking system should be understood in the context of its history.

There is no financial institution in Kazakhstan quite like Halyk Bank. When Moody’s Investors Service surveyed the country’s financial system in September, it pointed to a common complaint: the system is fragmented. Halyk Bank, which has 34% of total banking assets, is the exception to that rule.

ForteBank neatly encapsulates the ambition of Kazakhstan’s banking sector. It has pushed hard into digital, launching its own online marketplace. It is putting serious effort into expanding its lending to small and medium-sized enterprises. It has used acquisitions to increase its asset base and boost its technology. It is far from the only bank in the country to have such widespread ambitions but, under the stewardship of chief executive Guram Andronikashvili, it has managed to stay a step ahead of the competition.