Kaspi Bank's overall outlook has been revised from stable to positive — Moody's

Rating agency Moody’s confirmed Kaspi Bank’s ratings on the global scale: long-term deposit ratings in national and foreign currencies at Ba2, long-term counterparty risk (CRR) rating Ba2. The outlook on Kaspi Bank’s long-term deposit ratings on the global scale and the overall outlook have been revised from stable to positive.In its reports, Kaspi highlights three main segments: the payment platform, the marketplace, and fintech. The Kaspi payment platform enables transactions between buyers and sellers through various channels: Kaspi Gold, Kaspi QR, and third-party bypass transfers (Visa, Mastercard).The marketplace market is one of the most competitive and has a high entry barrier. Kaspi hosts stores on its platform, whose advantage lies in a large customer base, integrating its payment platform and buy-now-pay-later system. The company’s marketplace is one of the fastest-growing.All of this is part of the Kaspi.kz Super App (a working name for investors on the LSE and in the company’s reports), which forms the company’s ecosystem. The app’s MAU (monthly active users) indicator stands at 7.8 million people, according to the report for the first half of 2020.Kaspi’s fintech allows users to access these services and manage personal finances (loans, deposits, payments, transfers) in the Kaspi Super App, which attracts such a large number of users. The importance of the Kaspi Super App for the financial system of Kazakhstan is evident, as reminded by the recent outage.The formation of the Kaspi ecosystem is a unique case for Kazakhstan. Before the company’s IPO on the LSE, there were many debates about whether Kaspi is a fintech, as it positions itself, if its revenue is generated from banking services.We are united in the opinion that Kaspi’s success is largely due to the innovations the company has applied in its product. The company’s business model relies on an ecosystem consisting of different segments not related to banking services but necessary for its functioning.Moody’s correctly points this out in its report: “Maintaining a strong financial base, Kaspi Bank continued to increase its market share and diversify its business. According to Moody’s, recently the share of payment services in Kaspi Bank’s profit exceeds 20%. These considerations prompted Moody’s to change Kaspi Bank’s outlook from stable to positive and upgrade the national scale deposit rating.” It is precisely the fintech and marketplace components that are among the main reasons for revising Kaspi Bank’s outlook from stable to positive.Sources: London Stock Exchange | Moody’s