Freedom Bank joins Kazakhstan’s top five profitable banks

Kazakhstan’s top five most profitable banks have changed / Generated by a neural network, photo editor: Adelina Mamedova

As of Dec. 1, Kazakhstani banks had earned a total of 2.5 trillion tenge ($4.9bn) in profit, including 226 billion tenge ($449 million) in November alone. Most major banks continued to post stable profits, although some unexpectedly dropped out of the top ten, according to statistics from the National Bank.

Freedom Bank, meanwhile, recorded a sharp rise and entered the top five most profitable banks. It ranked fifth, earning 13.3 billion tenge ($26.2 million) in November — nearly doubling its profit from the previous month — and also reported a positive accumulated profit since the beginning of the year.

At the same time, Alatau City Bank, which had consistently ranked among the top five banks by monthly profit, slipped to eighth place with 7.2 billion tenge ($14.3 million).

The five largest banks by net profit in November were:

Halyk Bank — 85 billion tenge ($168.9 million), bringing its year-to-date profit to 897 billion tenge ($1.7 billion); Kaspi Bank — 44.7 billion tenge ($88.8 million), up to 518.7 billion tenge ($1 billion); BCC — 14.5 billion tenge ($28.8 million), totaling 227 billion tenge ($451 million); ForteBank — 13.5 billion tenge ($26.8 million), reaching 167 billion tenge ($331.8 million); Freedom Bank — 13.3 billion tenge ($26.4 million), with year-to-date profits of 4.4 billion tenge ($8.7 million).

Just outside the top five was Bereke Bank, which outperformed expectations by earning 13 billion tenge ($25.8 million) in November and 48.9 billion tenge ($97 million) year to date. Otbasy Bank followed in sixth place with 11 billion tenge ($21.8 million) in monthly profit and 104.6 billion tenge ($207 million) since January.

Alatau City Bank was followed in eighth place by VTB Bank, which earned 4.3 billion tenge ($8.5 million) in November, and ForteBank’s subsidiary Home Credit Bank, with 3.5 billion tenge ($6.9 million).

For the first time in a long period, Bank RBK dropped out of the top ten, posting a profit of just 668 million tenge ($1.3 million). Analysts have previously linked the decline in profits to the early repayment of state support. Nurbank, which also repaid state aid, ranked last, reporting a profit of only 58 million tenge ($115,267).

Two banks reported losses for the month: BNK Commercial Bank, with a loss of 321.6 million tenge, and Shinhan Bank Kazakhstan, which posted a loss of 529.1 million tenge.