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Kazakhstan is a one-super-app market. Kaspi.kz combined a bank, a marketplace and payments, and Kaspi Pay became the default way to pay: a QR code at the till and online, a confirmation in the app, instant settlement. A checkout for Kazakh payers starts with Kaspi Pay, keeps cards for everyone else, and uses the local providers for payouts; the rest of this post is the detail.
The methods, and what each is for
| Method | Who uses it | How the payer pays | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kaspi Pay | Most payers; Kaspi’s clients are the majority of adults | Scans a QR code or follows a deep link into the Kaspi app | Instant, no chargebacks, settlement to the merchant’s Kaspi account |
| Domestic cards | Clients of other banks | Enters the card; 3-D Secure | Visa and Mastercard cards issued in Kazakhstan; local acquiring needed |
| Apple Pay and Google Pay | Mobile payers with cards | One tap | Small amounts, fast |
| Bank transfers | Businesses, large amounts | Transfers with a reference | Slower; used for B2B |
| Payouts to cards and accounts | Sellers, couriers, withdrawals | Receives to a card or an account | Through the local providers |
What the checkout needs
- Kaspi Pay first. A QR code on desktop and a deep link into the app on mobile; the confirmation arrives in seconds.
- Cards for payers of other banks and for international cards, with 3-D Secure; Apple Pay and Google Pay for small amounts on mobile.
- Payouts to cards and accounts through the local providers for refunds, withdrawals and seller settlements.
- Tenge and local acquiring. Payments in tenge through a local acquirer; a card acquired abroad is declined more often and costs the payer a conversion.
Kaspi Pay in detail
A Kaspi Pay payment is created by the merchant’s provider with the amount and a reference; on desktop the checkout shows a QR code the payer scans in the Kaspi app, on mobile a button opens the app directly with the payment filled in. The payer confirms, Kaspi reports the result within seconds, and the merchant is notified; refunds go back to the payer’s Kaspi account. Kaspi is both the payer’s bank and the merchant’s acquirer in this flow, which is why there is no chargeback mechanism and why settlement is fast. A merchant that wants Kaspi Pay contracts with Kaspi, and a PSP that serves many merchants enables Kaspi as a terminal with each merchant’s account.
Cards for everyone else
Payers who bank elsewhere, Halyk and the other large banks, pay with cards: Visa and Mastercard cards issued in Kazakhstan, with 3-D Secure for online payments. A local acquirer such as Freedom Pay accepts all of them in tenge; a route that sends these cards to a foreign acquirer loses the ones the issuer declines as cross-border. Apple Pay and Google Pay are available and win the small purchases on mobile.
Why orchestration matters here
A payer who is not a Kaspi client pays with a card, and the card may be declined by one acquirer and approved by another. Routing Kaspi Pay first for Kazakh payers, cascading cards across two acquirers and keeping wallets for small amounts recovers payments that one integration loses. Settlement and currency conversion stay with the licensed local providers, Kaspi and Freedom Pay in the Tranzify catalogue; the ledger records each payment with its fee and its provider, so a PSP sees the margin by terminal.
| Payer | First on the page | Fallback |
|---|---|---|
| Kaspi client on mobile | Kaspi Pay by deep link | Card |
| Kaspi client on desktop | Kaspi Pay by QR code | Card |
| Client of another bank | Card with 3-D Secure, cascaded across two acquirers | Apple Pay or Google Pay |
| International payer | International card on the cross-border acquirer | — |
Payouts
Couriers, sellers and partners are paid to a card or an account through the local providers; a file of payouts is validated in the back office before sending, and returned payouts come back to the balance with the reason. Withdrawals for iGaming are not the use case in Kazakhstan: the client’s licence and the local rules decide which verticals a provider accepts, and the catalogue shows the providers’ policies.
Who holds the licence
Kaspi is a bank licensed by the Agency for Regulation and Development of the Financial Market; payment organisations such as Freedom Pay are registered with the National Bank; a client contracts with them under its own licence and enters the accounts in its terminals. Tranzify supplies the software, routes and journals, and never holds the funds. The Kazakhstan country page lists the methods and the providers; the Kaspi Pay method page describes the flow; the CIS region page shows how the neighbouring markets differ.
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