Excellence in leadership in CEE 2020: Halyk Bank

Awards for Excellence 2020

Kazakhstan’s banks faced a difficult challenge in the first two months of the pandemic. When president Kassym-Jomart Tokayev announced a state of emergency on March 16, he also unveiled plans to provide a support payment of KT42,500 ($106) to all citizens economically affected by the pandemic.

The catch was that these payments had to be delivered via bank accounts, either online or via cards. In a country with low overall banking penetration and even lower usage of digital channels, this put a huge burden on the banking sector – and particularly on Kazakhstan’s largest and most trusted lender, Halyk Bank.