Starting January 13, 2025, Kazakhstan's payment system will adopt the international standard ISO 20022 for data exchange between financial organizations. This transition will be implemented by all commercial banks in the country, reports Tengrinews.kz.
Banks assure clients that operations will continue to be conducted as usual, and there is no cause for concern. According to Halyk Bank, all client operations, including cash withdrawals, card payments, and loan transactions, will remain accessible. Funds in accounts will be kept secure, and there is no need to withdraw cash in advance.
ForteBank has announced that due to the payment system's transition to the ISO standard, technical work will take place on January 13, 2025. Bank clients are advised to update their banking applications by 6:00 PM on January 10.
From January 10 at 5:50 PM until January 11 at 9:00 AM, the payment of fines and taxes will be temporarily unavailable. Additionally, from January 8 to January 10, transfers with future dates in tenge will not be accepted. For individual entrepreneurs and legal entities, transfers in tenge between banks will be unavailable on January 10 from 8:00 PM to 9:30 PM. However, other operations, such as cash withdrawals and transfers, will continue to function as normal.
Bank CentrCredit reported that on January 12, 2025, from 2:30 AM to 6:05 AM, scheduled technical work will be carried out. During this time, the mobile applications bcc.kz and bcc business, as well as ATMs and payment terminals, will be unavailable. The bank apologized for the inconvenience and recommended that clients plan their operations in advance.
Beginning January 13, 2025, Eurasian Bank will also switch to the international payment standard ISO 20022. Legal entities will need to adhere to new requirements when processing payments. Official data states that starting January 9, the bank will not accept payments with valuation after January 10, and from January 10 after the close of the business day, payments in MT format will not be accepted.
It was previously reported that the National Bank of Kazakhstan, in collaboration with second-tier banks, is working on implementing the international payment message format ISO 20022 in the country's payment systems.
"Payments by the population using payment cards, QR codes, mobile transfers, cash withdrawals from ATMs, and mobile phone payments will remain unchanged. However, due to the need to adjust their information systems, banks will conduct technical work. This may result in temporary changes to the payment acceptance schedule related to interbank services. Financial institutions are currently notifying their clients in advance about the timing of technical work being carried out by banks as part of the transition to the new standard," the National Bank previously stated.
ISO 20022 is an international standard for data exchange between banks and financial institutions. It defines unified rules and message formats used during transactions.
The transition to ISO 20022, according to the National Bank, will enhance the security, transparency, and efficiency of financial operations, maintaining already high standards of quality and speed in payment processing.
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