Kazakhstan's Deposit Insurance Fund (KDIF) has announced an increase in the maximum rate on certain foreign-currency deposits, which will stand at 2.5% per annum from October 1, 2026. The new ceiling will apply to deposits opened or rolled over after that date, according to infohub.kz.
The figure represents an upper limit only: the fund merely recommends this level, and banks are not obliged to set a rate of 2.5%. Each lending institution determines its own terms.
For all other foreign-currency deposits, the cap remains unchanged at 1% per annum. This applies to term and non-term deposits of any duration, as well as to savings deposits with a term of up to 12 months inclusive.
Economist and Qazaq Expert Club co-founder Baurzhan Shurmanov described the KDIF decision as a targeted adjustment of the system. According to him, Kazakhstan is steadily moving closer to global market standards.
"In simple terms, the National Bank and the KDIF are finally easing the tight restrictions that foreign-currency deposits have been under for many years. Previously, almost all savings in the country were held in dollars, so the regulator had to effectively freeze interest in the currency with a minimum rate of 1%. Over these years the situation has changed dramatically: the share of foreign-currency deposits has fallen from 80% to a comfortable 19.2%, and the tenge is holding firm. Raising the ceiling to 2.5% was a logical attempt to bring the rules closer to global realities, since dollar rates abroad rose long ago, while our banks, because of the old framework, were simply losing foreign-currency depositors who moved to foreign jurisdictions or into cash," the expert explained.
The rate increase, of course, does not amount to a call for mass purchases of foreign currency, B. Shurmanov notes.
"But no one is urging anyone to rush out and buy currency, and there is little economic benefit in doing so. The 2.5% rate will be offered only to those willing to place their money for at least a year without the right of early withdrawal, otherwise all interest is forfeited. For banks this is a chance to obtain long-term resources to finance imports, but for the ordinary person tenge deposits remain far more profitable. On top of that, the state's insurance on savings in the national currency is four times higher: 20 million versus a modest 5 million on foreign-currency accounts. The result is a targeted adjustment of the system: banks got the liquidity they needed, currency holders got a slightly better rate, and the tenge market kept its main advantages," the expert believes.
The Deposit Insurance Fund attributes the decision to the successful results of the National Bank of Kazakhstan's efforts to de-dollarize the deposit market. Over 11 years, the share of foreign-currency deposits in the country has fallen from 80% to 19.2%.
At the same time, the state guarantee on foreign-currency savings remains unchanged: the maximum payout is 5 million tenge in equivalent for deposits, accounts and cards in foreign currency.