The banks affected are Halyk Bank, Eurasian Bank, Nurbank, and, most notably, the local subsidiary of Russia’s state-owned VTB.
In a statement, VTB cited "technical issues" as the reason for the suspension, which they described as temporary. They did not specify when services would resume.
Nurbank's website states that card issuance to non-residents is paused due to "technical work."
Representatives from Halyk Bank and Eurasian Bank confirmed the restrictions but provided no further details.
Additionally, on Jan. 21, Home Credit Bank, a subsidiary of the Czech group PPF, and Kaspi Bank also took similar measures. Home Credit Bank stated that the halt on issuing cards would last indefinitely. Kaspi Bank promised to resume card issuance on Feb. 3 but with a significant change: the cards for non-residents will now be valid for only 12 months.
As previously reported, Italy's largest bank, Intesa Sanpaolo, stopped accepting euro-denominated transactions from Russian banks on Jan. 15.