Altyn Bank is part of Halyk Group, the largest financial group in Kazakhstan. Active in the market since 1998 as a universal commercial bank, it is the largest subsidiary of Halyk Bank, serving 600+ corporate clients and 75,000 individual customers.

In late 2014, Halyk Bank acquired HSBC Bank Kazakhstan when HSBC decided to leave the country. They subsequently renamed it Altyn Bank. The bank faced a challenging separation scenario, with the need to become independent from legacy systems and old parent infrastructure from day one. While this created some problems for the bank, it also presented an opportunity to start its digital journey from scratch.

“Back at Halyk we thought about a digital banking project for some time. For an incumbent player like Halyk, launching such a project is no easy task. For this reason, presenting the Altyn Bank case to the parent bank was both easy and difficult at the same time. It was easy since Halyk was mentally ready for such a project. What was difficult to come up with was a clear projection and financial model. Nonetheless, the acquisition of Altyn presented rare opportunities – a clear IT landscape, affluent retail clientele and a limited branch network.”

said Askar S. Smagulov, Altyn Bank CEO.