Kazakhstan IBAN
A Kazakhstan IBAN is 20 characters long.
KZ and two check digits open every Kazakhstan IBAN; its remaining 16 form the BBAN (Basic Bank Account Number). Transfers into Kazakhstan arrive in KZT over SWIFT.
Example Kazakhstan IBAN
Electronic format
KZ86125KZT5004100100
Print format
KZ86 125K ZT50 0410 0100
IBAN structure for Kazakhstan
Major banks in Kazakhstan
2 banks in Kazakhstan that support IBAN-based international transfers:
Format reference: SWIFT IBAN Registry.
Kazakhstan IBAN questions
Can money from abroad arrive through Kazakhstan's phone-number transfers?
Not directly. The NPC describes the Interbank Mobile Payment System as a national system for instant payments between accounts at Kazakhstan's second-tier banks, addressed by mobile phone number or QR code instead of full bank details. A payment from another country is sent to the recipient's account using its full details, including the IBAN.
When did interbank QR payments start in Kazakhstan?
The NBK and the NPC demonstrated the first interbank QR transaction on 15 November 2024 at the Congress of Financiers in Almaty, with two second-tier banks taking part, and planned to scale the service in 2025. The NPC has since said that, as more banks joined, phone-number transfers and the interbank QR became available to practically every Kazakhstani using mobile banking.
Does Kazakhstan produce its own banknotes and coins?
Yes. The NBK's history of the tenge says the Kazakh Mint was set up in 1992 at the Ulba Metallurgical Plant in Ust-Kamenogorsk and struck its first industrial batch of circulation coins in 1993. A national Banknote Factory, built under a contract signed in early 1994, opened on 19 May 1995; since 1997 it has also printed passports and identity cards.
Kazakhstan: the tenge, NBK payment systems and phone-number transfers
Kazakhstan's tenge came into circulation on 15 November 1993, three days after President Nursultan Nazarbayev signed the decree introducing a national currency, and the National Bank of Kazakhstan (NBK) treats that date as the day of the tenge. The NBK is now adding a third form of money alongside cash and bank balances: the digital tenge, whose technical feasibility was confirmed in 2021 and on which the first bank card was issued in 2023.
- Interbank tenge payments settle through the Interbank Money Transfer System (MSPD), operated by the NBK with the National Payment Corporation (NPC) as operating centre, which executes each instruction in real time from banks' correspondent accounts at the NBK. Work on it began in 1995, it entered full operation in December 2000, and it has worked to ISO 20022 since 13 January 2025.
- For everyday payments, the NBK launched an upgraded Instant Payment System on 20 June 2022, first for transfers between individuals by mobile phone number, then for QR payments under the national standard; banks set their own fees for phone-number transfers. The NPC now runs the Interbank Mobile Payment System, which finds the recipient's bank from a registry of mobile numbers.
- The NPC also hosts the National Antifraud Centre, where the NBK, the Agency for Regulation and Development of the Financial Market, all second-tier banks, payment and microfinance organisations, the National Security Committee, the Prosecutor General's Office, the Interior Ministry and mobile operators share data on suspect transactions, including fraudsters, suspicious accounts and phone numbers.
Sources: NBK: history of the national currency; NBK: Instant Payment System goes live (20 Jun 2022); NPC: Interbank Money Transfer System (Russian); NPC: Interbank Mobile Payment System.
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