ASTANA – The Halyk Bank board of directors has approved a merger with Kazkommertsbank (Qazkom). The agreement will be finalised after passing all necessary procedures, including appropriate coordination with regulatory bodies.
“After five months of painstaking work with international consultants, we can confidently state that the potential of the transaction is huge both in scale and in terms of the degree of influence on the economy of Kazakhstan and a number of neighbouring countries. Integration of banks is the most optimal option for further development of the group. The core of integration is the principle of maximum synergy, based on combining the strengths of the two banks. We will take all the best: the most developed banking infrastructure in the country and the best risk management of Halyk Bank and the modern technologies and standards of Qazkom customer service, as well as knowledge, experience in serving millions of customers and the most competitive products and services of both banks,” said Halyk Bank board chair Umut Shayakhmetova
The accession will be completed once the necessary prerequisites and service and technological readiness provisions of the two financial institutions have been created. The steps include synchronising the product offer, banking procedures and processes and integrating the IT systems and banking infrastructure.
“We expect that the association, when creating the largest bank, will improve the access of clients to loans and a broader product line and provide additional incentives for the development of business and the economy. The investment opportunities of the Halyk Group will allow the advanced development of Qazkom’s know-how to be more actively developed. All this together gives us confidence that we will continue to maintain and strengthen our technological leadership and quality of service,” said Qazkom board chair Ulf Vokurka.
The main emphasis in the integration process will be on ensuring the smooth operation of all services at both banks to ensure customers are not inconvenienced.
Improving services and increasing their availability began with the unification of ATM networks in July. Halyk Bank and Qazkom subsequently implemented joint card projects, including the consumer lending programme Halyk Light + Homebank Orange. In the future, banks will bring a number of services for money transfers and card payments to market on the internet, launching a completely new online bank and its mobile application for entrepreneurs being serviced at the Halyk Group. The banks will seek to make every effort to more fully reveal the synergetic potential of the association to clients.
