Republic of Kazakhstan: Technical Assistance Report-Next steps and Considerations for the Digital Tenge
Technical Assistance Reports, January 14, 2026
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- Republic of Kazakhstan: Technical Assistance Report-Next steps and Considerations for the Digital Tenge
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Bibliographic details
- Published: January 14, 2026
- Series: Technical Assistance Reports
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.5089/9798229035354.019
Mission scope and timeline
- An IMF mission visited both Astana and Almaty during May - June 2024.
- This mission was a second engagement with the National Bank of Kazakhstan (NBK) and National Payments Corporation of Kazakhstan (NPCK) following a virtual engagement during February - March 2024.
- The virtual phase focused on legal considerations.
- The in-person phase explored financial stability considerations from broader use cases, interoperability, and cyber resilience.
- Work was underpinned by considerations on institutional capacity, governance, and internal buy-in of the project.
Key findings
- Gaining legal certainty for issuing the Digital Tenge remains a priority.
- Prioritization of use cases is needed to tailor evaluation frameworks so they better assess each use case’s contribution to the desired objectives.
- Prioritization of use cases needs to account for the practical technical capacity and cyber resilience of the Digital Tenge platform.
- As the NBK and NPCK test broader use cases, potential channels for financial stability implications were highlighted.
- There is a need for further work across stakeholders to test relevant safeguards.
Policy recommendations and next steps
- Establish legal certainty for issuance of the Digital Tenge as a priority action.
- Prioritize specific use cases for the Digital Tenge and adapt evaluation frameworks to:
- Assess contributions of each use case to stated objectives.
- Reflect technical constraints and cyber resilience requirements of the platform.
- Strengthen cross-stakeholder collaboration to:
- Identify and test safeguards against financial stability risks.
- Evaluate interoperability considerations across systems and participants.
- Build institutional capacity, governance frameworks, and internal buy-in to support implementation and testing phases.
Analytical emphasis
- Legal framework analysis: primary focus during the virtual engagement (February - March 2024).
- Financial stability, interoperability, and cyber resilience: primary focus during the in-person engagement (May - June 2024).
- Evaluation frameworks should be use-case specific and pragmatic given technical and cyber resilience realities.
Content in this bundle
- IMF Technical Assistance Report – Kazakhstan