Kazakhstan's National Bank is working to launch cross-border QR code payments for Kazakh citizens in China, India, the United Arab Emirates and several other countries. Under the regulator's plans, the ability to pay for goods and services through bank apps in those countries will be available by mid-2027, the website infohub.kz reports.
Deputy National Bank Chairman Binur Zhalenov announced the plans at the Central Asia Fintech Summit 2026. According to him, the regulator is continuing to work on cross-border payments for Kazakh citizens through banking apps.
"To date, concrete practical agreements have been signed in a number of areas. We have 11 countries with which we are working on cross-border payments. These are China, India, the United Arab Emirates, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and other states. We expect that by the end of the year the system will already be operating in practice on the Chinese track. With the other countries, the launch will take place in stages, with the rollout expected to begin by around the middle of next year," Zhalenov said.
As the deputy National Bank chief explained, the agreements reached will allow Kazakh citizens to pay for goods and services abroad simply by scanning a QR code from their bank's app. In addition, it will become possible to generate one's own code so that residents of those countries can transfer funds to Kazakh citizens.
According to Zhalenov, the commission for such transactions will be set by the bank through which the payment is made.
The deputy National Bank chairman also said that not all retail outlets have yet replaced the static sticker codes for payment via the unified QR. At the same time, refusing to accept such a payment through a terminal is a violation.