The head of Halyk Bank, Umut Shayaqmetova, and analyst Andrei Chebotarev highlight that the bank already has experience operating in neighboring countries such as Russia and Uzbekistan, and foreign financial institutions have long been present in Kazakhstan.
An additional factor was the signing of a memorandum of cooperation between the National Bank of Hungary (Magyar Nemzeti Bank) and Kazakhstan during President Kasym-Jomart Tokayev's visit to Hungary in 2024. The document aims to strengthen cross-border financial supervision.
Earlier, following negotiations between Kazakhstan's Foreign Minister Murat Nurtleu and his Hungarian counterpart Peter Szijjarto, plans were revealed for Hungarian banks to enter the Kazakh financial market.
“In the future, not only the opening of branches of Hungarian banks in Kazakhstan is being considered, but also the construction of a multimodal terminal in Budapest, as well as an increase in the export of oil and petroleum products to Hungary,” the Foreign Minister reported.