In March, transfers totaling 12.2 billion tenge moved from Russia to Kazakhstan. This level marks a 168% increase from the previous year, a period when Russia faced a shutdown of Visa and Mastercard services. The National Bank of Kazakhstan provides the data for these figures. In dollar terms, the growth reached 171% year over year.
During the first quarter of 2023, transfers from Russia to Kazakhstan reached 33.9 billion tenge, representing more than a threefold rise compared with the same period in the prior year. The year 2022 set a new high, with 357 billion tenge moving from Russia to Kazakhstan, roughly 775.4 million US dollars, a record since statistics began to be kept in 2014.
Industry experts point to several drivers behind this surge. A prominent factor is the growing use of services that facilitate relocation, including the practice of opening accounts in Kazakhstan and purchasing goods in Russia that become difficult to access from other countries. This pattern has heightened cross-border money movements and underscored the role of financial services in shaping consumer behavior across the two nations.
In parallel, a move by a Kazakh broker raised attention. Halyk Finance noted a development following a letter from the JSC Kazakhstan Stock Exchange regarding the separation of Russian and Belarusian client accounts at the level of the Central Securities Depository. The change would involve accounts held in currencies other than tenge and would introduce distinctions based on instruments settled through international clearinghouses such as Euroclear and Clearstream. This shift reflects ongoing adjustments in settlement practices and currency handling within the regional financial infrastructure.