According to McKinsey's data for 2024, the penetration and use of artificial intelligence (AI) has increased by 65%, which is 22% higher than in 2023. This was stated by Ainur Temirkhanqyzy, advisor to the chairman of Freedom Bank, during the panel session "How AI is Changing Companies and People," held at Digital Almaty on January 31, 2025, as reported by the correspondent from the business information center Kapital.kz.
"AI is no longer the future; it is the present. It is a pressing necessity, a must-have," the speaker asserts.
According to Ainur Temirkhanqyzy, AI Compliance was implemented at Freedom Bank in December 2024.
1 "In brief, compliance control is about 'knowing your customer' or know your customer (KYC). Often, people think this just means we need to know our client's passport details and address," shares Asel Suleimenova, the chief compliance officer of Freedom Bank.
In reality, this is not enough, she adds. "We need to understand the nature of this client's business relationship with us: what purpose they have for coming to our bank. This is the second principle – relatively new compared to KYC – which is KYT or know your transaction : we must know our client's operation," explains the speaker.
2 Asel Suleimenova highlights the challenges for compliance in Kazakhstani banks over the past three years:
- sanctions compliance: the need to constantly screen and monitor the client base and their transactions against sanctions lists, as well as to control clients' export-import transactions and cross-border transfers (prohibition on the import/export of goods, provision of services to/from the RF/RB);
- combating money laundering, terrorism financing, as well as weapons of mass destruction;
- combating fraud and other illegal activities (drug trade, drop services, illegal crypto exchanges, online casinos);
- maintaining correspondent and business relationships.
Among the main issues, the chief compliance officer of Freedom Bank pointed out the labor-intensive nature of manual information gathering and the risk of human error, lack of effective communication with the client or "silent phone" (the compliance officer cannot communicate directly with the client), frequent regulatory changes that can lead to over-compliance (excessive compliance – Ed.), huge transaction volumes of cashless payments, and a shortage of professionals in the compliance market.
"Thus, the digitization of compliance, unifying approaches to digitize 80% of routine work and focus only on 20% of unique cases, which can also be incorporated into AI in the future, is already a necessity," the speaker concludes.
3 Ainur Temirkhanqyzy, advisor to the chairman of Freedom Bank, spoke about the results of implementing AI Compliance: processing one transaction request now takes about 8 minutes, whereas it previously took between 5 hours to 2 days.
AI Compliance is integrated with dozens of databases, both primary sources and secondary commercial resources.
"Based on all this data, we create a digital portrait of the client, meaning we score our client using data from external and internal bank services. After that, we provide a conclusion. The controller only needs to open the account, review the transaction – the chatbot has already communicated with the client, requested missing data, asked questions, parsed documents, and provided information," explains the speaker.
Thus, AI Compliance generates a preliminary decision based on the established models, highlighting points that the compliance officer should focus on.
4 "The request goes to the compliance officer only if there is a question regarding the client that requires resolution. Otherwise, the AI chatbot communicates with the client entirely on its own – if everything is fine and we understand that we have received all the information, the transfer proceeds quickly – it takes a minute," summarizes Ainur Temirkhanqyzy. "We have made life easier for the controllers: they monitor all outgoing payments through AI Compliance."
Plans include implementing analysis in this way for incoming payments, the speaker adds. "Currently, we are discussing individuals, and later there will be legal entities," said the advisor to the chairman of Freedom Bank.
Additionally, AI enhances security. Renat Tukhanov, the chief technical officer of Freedom Holding Corp., discussed AI-based technologies that help prevent cyberattacks, which, according to him, result in damages of $8 trillion annually. "This is equivalent to half of China's GDP, a third of the USA's GDP, and approximately 30% of Kazakhstan's GDP," the speaker highlighted.
Evgeny Kim, chairman of the board of Sergek Group, shared the results of AI implementation in traffic management and trends in applying new technologies in the Smart City concept. "After launching our system in new regions, the mortality rate in traffic accidents decreases by 30-50% within one year. Additionally, the total number of traffic accidents decreases by up to 30%. The resolution rate of crimes increases, while their number decreases. These are real indicators in Kazakhstan thanks to our developed technologies," he emphasized.
AI is also applied in the insurance sector. Azamat Kerimbaev, chairman of the board of Freedom Insurance, spoke about AI's role in risk assessment when purchasing a policy, as well as calculating the volume of payouts in the event of claims. "Today, we conduct 100% of insurance payouts online, with the average payout time ranging from 5 to 10 days – we have transitioned many business processes into a digital format," noted the speaker.
5 License of ARRF for conducting banking and other operations No. 1.1.108 dated June 25, 2024.