BAKU, Azerbaijan, Mar.21
By Nargiz Sadikhova - Trend:
Kazakhstan’s banking sector, like many other sectors, faced pressure which undoubtedly affected its development amid the global COVID-19 pandemic and the entailing global economic slowdown, a source in the country’s National Bank told Trend.
According to the source, in 2020, there was a recorded active transition of banks to a digital service format and the market strengthening the possibilities of online services.
"The implementation of remote customer service and the provision of banking services through remote channels have become one of the top priorities for the financial sector. The current situation contributes to the growth of e-commerce, cashless payments, and the popularization of innovative ways of obtaining services," the source said.
In 2020, the banking sector focused on strengthening the functionality of remote banking.
"For example, at the end of the year, the share of online transactions in the structure of non-cash transactions of the population made up 81 percent, having grown by 10 percent since 2019 (when the share of online transactions was 71 percent)," noted the source.
Overall, according to the source, in 2020, the population carried out 2.9 million non-cash transactions in the amount of 35.3 trillion tenge ($84.4 billion), which is more than double the indicators of the results of 2019. Thus, the positive dynamics of the growth of non-cash payments remain on the market."
In order to speed up the market transition to remote customer service in April this year, the National Bank launched a test remote identification service for its customers, the source stressed.
"The industrial commissioning of the service took place on October 1, 2020. At the end of the year, the number of participants was 13 banks. In total, more than 3.7 million banking services were processed through this service," added the source.