Beeline Kazakhstan, global digital operator VEON and the National Bank of Kazakhstan have signed a memorandum of cooperation in the payments services sector. The document covers a five-year period and sets out the key areas of interaction between the parties in payments services, as well as exploring ways to integrate digital services with Kazakhstan's national payment and digital financial infrastructure, the website infohub.kz reports.
One area of cooperation will be the further development of Beeline as a participant in the country's payments market. The company intends to become one of the first market participants to obtain first-category payment organization status. Securing that status will create additional opportunities for the development of payment services in Kazakhstan.
The memorandum was signed at the Central Asia Fintech Summit in Almaty, one of the region's key financial technology events, organized by the National Bank of Kazakhstan, the National Payment Corporation and the Kazakhstan Fintech Network.
"Kazakhstan is consistently developing a modern national payment infrastructure, and it is important for us to be part of this transformation. The Beeline group of companies already has considerable expertise in payment services, while VEON brings international technological experience and a large-scale digital ecosystem. Combining these capabilities with the national payment infrastructure opens up the potential to create new, convenient and accessible financial services for millions of users. Our goal is to make payments and transfers a natural part of the customer's everyday digital experience: simple, fast and secure," said Jabbor Kayumov, CEO of the Beeline Kazakhstan holding.
Another area of cooperation will be exploring how companies in the VEON group can use certain services and infrastructure solutions of the National Payment Corporation. This could include tools for making payments and money transfers, as well as solutions for interaction and settlements between financial market participants.
The cooperation will allow the parties to explore the creation of new financial services within VEON's digital ecosystem using Kazakhstan's national payment infrastructure and the group's international experience. Each project will undergo its own regulatory, legal and technical review and will be implemented only after all necessary requirements and procedures have been met.
VEON is a digital operator serving more than 150 million connectivity customers and over 228 million users of digital platforms. The company operates in 5 countries that are home to more than 6% of the world's population, and develops technology services that help people and drive economic growth. In Kazakhstan it is represented by the digital operator Beeline, which develops telecommunications, financial, digital and technology services.