Republic of Kazakhstan: Next steps and Considerations for the Digital Tenge

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. Both phases sought to support authorities’ understanding and evaluation for the next steps in the Digital Tenge Project − the virtual phase focused on legal considerations, and the in-person phase explored financial stability considerations from broader use cases, interoperability, and cyber resilience. Underpinning the work were considerations on institutional capacity, governance, and internal buy-in of the project. The mission concluded with several recommendations of which gaining legal certainty for issuing the Digital Tenge remains a priority. Additionally, the mission suggested the authorities prioritize use cases and tailor evaluation frameworks to better assess their respective contributions to the desired objectives. The prioritization of use cases also 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, the mission also highlighted potential channels for financial stability implications and a need for further work across stakeholders to test relevant safeguards.