In August 2026, the growth of problem debt NPL 90+ in Kazakhstani banks slowed down – by 4.9 billion tenge, to 1.857 trillion tenge. The share of problem loans in the banking system decreased to 4%, and some of the largest banks got rid of overdue debts. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Kursiv Media.
Loans for which borrowers do not pay for more than 90 days are called problem loans. The indicator is also known as NPL 90+. The volume and share of such loans are used to assess the quality of a bank's loan portfolio. A share of up to 2% is considered good, 3-5% – an acceptable level, especially for emerging markets, 5-7% – increased risk.
As of September 1, the volume of problem debt in Kazakhstani banks amounted to 1.857 trillion tenge, having increased by 4.9 billion tenge. For comparison, in July it grew by 6 billion tenge, in August – by 14 billion tenge, and in May – by as much as 51.5 billion tenge. The share of problem loans also decreased to 4%, which was the lowest level since March.
The largest banks traditionally made the most significant contribution to the growth of problem debt. Among them, Bank CenterCredit became the leader by a wide margin. Its NPL 90+ grew in a month more than the combined total of all other top-10 banks – by 12.4 billion tenge, to 97 billion tenge. At the same time, the bank maintains a very low share of problem debts, although their share in assets increased – to 1.88% (an increase of 0.2 p.p.).
Second place in terms of growth in the volume of non-performing loans was taken by Bereke Bank, where problem debt increased by 9.6 billion tenge, to 84.6 billion tenge. The bank's NPL 90+ share rose by 0.4 p.p. – one of the most significant growth indicators – to 4.9%.
In third place is Kaspi Bank, where problem debts grew by 6 billion tenge, to 556.6 billion tenge. At the same time, their share in the bank's loan portfolio decreased from 6.82% to 6.65%.
In fourth and fifth places in terms of growth in problem debt volumes are Bank RBK and ForteBank. For the former, problem debts grew by 4.3 billion tenge, to 58.6 billion tenge; for the latter – by 3.4 billion tenge, to 131 billion tenge. At Bank RBK, the share of problem loans increased by 0.25 p.p., to 3.51%, while at ForteBank, on the contrary, it decreased by 0.15 p.p., to 4.17%.
The remaining banks lag far behind them. At the same time, some banks, on the contrary, actively reduced problem debts. Thus, the country's largest bank, Halyk Bank, reduced the volume of NPL 90+ by as much as 36 billion tenge, to 599.5 billion tenge. The share of problem debts at the bank decreased by 0.4 p.p., to 4.3%. At Nurbank, NPL 90+ fell by 1.7 billion tenge, to 13.8 billion tenge, with a share of 4.11%. Islamic bank ADCB got rid of all its problem debts altogether, worth 713.5 million tenge.
In terms of the share of problem debt, the largest increase occurred at BNK Commercial Bank – by 0.72 p.p., to 8.15%. It is followed by Islamic Zaman-Bank in terms of overdue growth – plus 0.59 p.p., to 4.32%.
As for banks with the highest level of problem debt, at the beginning of September they include Bank VTB Kazakhstan with 9.27% of problem loans (3.1 billion tenge), BNK Commercial Bank, Home Credit Bank with 7.28% NPL 90+ (84.8 billion tenge), as well as Alatau City Bank with 6.98% of problem loans and KMF Bank with 6.82%.
Earlier, Kursiv Research wrote that in January-July, problem loans in Kazakhstani banks grew three times faster than the healthy portfolio.