As of the end of July, 21 commercial banks officially operate in Kyrgyzstan. A year ago there were 23 of them.

The number of banks in the country decreased by two in one day - on June 19, 2024. Since that day, JSC RK “Amanbank” was officially re-registered as a microfinance company - JSC IFC “Aman Credit”. That very day, the license of the Bishkek branch of the National Bank of Pakistan was also revoked.

It should be noted that the National Bank of Pakistan announced that it was leaving Central Asia, including Kyrgyzstan, back in November 2020. Then the bank confirmed the information about its self-liquidation to “Akchabar ” and the decision to leave our market was explained by a change in business strategy.

A representative of the bank reported that customers had to find another bank and transfer their funds there or withdraw them until February 28, 2021.

At the time when the bank decided to leave the Kyrgyz market its liabilities and assets amounted to 1.8 bln KGS. 976.8 million KGS of citizens and 975,000 KGS of banks and other FCUs were accumulated on accounts in NBP.

Later, all unclaimed customer accounts were unilaterally closed by the bank, and unclaimed balances on customer accounts were transferred to “Aiyl Bank”.

The self-liquidation process in the bank was launched after February 28, 2021.

As a result, the regulator started the liquidation process of the Bishkek branch of the National Bank of Pakistan on June 19 this year. That is, the liquidation process took more than three years.

At the same time, the decision on Amanbank was moving much faster. Thus, in late January this year, the shareholders at the extraordinary meeting decided to re-register the bank as a microfinance company. The respective petition was sent to the National Bank. Less than five months later, the regulator approved the re-registration.

It should be noted that the total paid-in authorized capital of these two banks amounted to 1 billion 400.6 million KGS, of which Amanbank had 800.6 million KGS and the National Bank of Pakistan had 600 million KGS.

Despite the withdrawal of two participants from the banking sector, it did not result in a decline in the total amount of banks' paid-in authorized capital. On the contrary, it even increased. At the end of the second quarter, the paid-in capital of all commercial banks amounted to 68 billion 63.4 million KGS. This is 7 billion 23.8 million KGS more than in the first quarter when there had been 23 banks in the country. The increase in the total authorized capital of commercial banks is due to the growth of ten participants in the sector at once.

It should be added that in 2019-2020 the situation in Kyrgyzstan was similar when two banks left the market - Chang An Bank OJSC, as well as Amanbank, re-registered in September 2019 and became a microfinance company and the BTA Bank ceased its independent existence due to the merger with Bakai Bank. In October 2019, the regulator approved the transaction, but it was finalized in 2020.