If official statistics are to be believed, Kazakhs are getting richer and inflation is gradually receding. But the real economy is sending different signals: instead of rising consumption and a developing service sector, pawn shops are multiplying across the country. This gap between official reports and everyday life was noticed by the founder of FBRC, journalist Kirill Pavlov. While bank lending is growing at a moderate pace, the collateral loan market is increasing by 63% per year. The FBRC editorial team has found out who controls the largest pawnshop chains in Kazakhstan, how their owners are faring on the stock exchange, and how much tax the industry pays into the budget.
FACTUAL BASIS
According to Pavlov Analytics, there are 2,754 outlets issuing collateral loans in Kazakhstan, and the sector's profit has grown from 13.7 to 32.1 billion tenge over two years. About two-thirds of the market is controlled by seven major players: M-Lombard, MK-Lombard, Safe-Lombard, MK-Zoloto Lombard, Astra-Lombard, Money to the People and Birinshi Lombard.
M-Lombard LLP and MK-Lombard LLP form the largest network in the country, having collectively paid 59.2 billion tenge in taxes since 2015. According to data from the kompra.kz service, M-Lombard has 45 branches, MK-Lombard has 56; both companies are registered in Almaty and have been operating since 1995. The founder is LC Investment S.A., registered in Luxembourg, which, as the Telegram channel Shishkin_like writes, owns 100% of M-Lombard (valued at 51 million US dollars at the end of 2023) and 50% of the subsidiary company CASO, which deals in real estate leasing in Almaty. The other 50% of CASO belong to the related entity Nostrum International S.A., which in turn is the sole owner of MK-Lombard. Both pawnshop networks are managed by one person - Gulam Aliyev, who previously served on the executive board of the maritime cargo company Circle Maritime Invest.
Another popular network in Kazakhstan, Safe-Lombard LLP, has paid over 12 billion tenge in taxes since 2015, with a peak of 1.9 billion tenge in 2025. The company has been operating since 2009 and has 128 branches, and by asset size (27.6 billion tenge) it ranks fourth among all Kazakhstani pawnshops. The company was the first in the sector to list on the KASE stock exchange in November 2021, placing three-year bonds worth 489 million tenge at 16% per annum; over two placements it raised 1.339 billion tenge.
The history of the owners of Safe-Lombard deserves particular attention. A controlling stake (98.98%) until 2025 was held by Igor Kim, a Russian citizen, formerly the majority shareholder of the Russian Expobank and its branches in the Czech Republic, Serbia and Latvia – all of which Kim sold off in 2022–2023. On 24 February 2025, Kim was added to the UK sanctions list, after which his stake in Safe-Lombard was transferred to a new owner – Eduard Li. Meanwhile, Kim's Expobank itself has been under US Treasury sanctions since December 2023. Despite this, Kim continues to buy up assets leaving Russia: in 2024–2025, through controlled entities, he acquired the Russian divisions of Volkswagen Financial Services, Volkswagen Group Finance, Volkswagen's subsidiary bank (Volkswagen Bank Rus), and in 2024 – the Russian subsidiary of the British HSBC.
The Safe-Lombard structure currently includes six companies, including the microfinance organisation (MFO) Bereke and MFO Cashdrive.kz, as well as the Kazakhstani Seif Car, the Uzbek SEIF LOMBARD and the Russian Safe-Finance. Since 2023, the MFO Bereke has changed its affiliation within the group several times and announced plans to convert into a bank, but the process has been delayed due to changes in the shareholder's asset structure. On 2 July 2025, a private company, Cashdrive Ltd, registered in the Astana International Financial Centre, was removed from the structure; the new owner has not yet been disclosed.
Birinshi Lombard LLP is the most active player on the stock market among pawnshops: over 15 bond placements on KASE, the company raised 4.814 billion tenge, although two issues in 2023 did not take place due to low demand – 2.6% and 5% of the offer. At the end of 2023, Birinshi Lombard's net profit was 4.2 billion tenge, and assets grew to 19.7 billion tenge, placing it sixth in the country by asset size. The co-owners of the company are Irina Kozlova and Alexandra Sokolova. At the beginning of 2025, the company expanded beyond Kazakhstan: its Bishkek subsidiary Birinchii Lombard K.G. bought a loan portfolio from the Kyrgyz pawnshop Kungur for 31.6 million tenge – a documented case of a Kazakhstani pawnshop expanding into the Central Asian market through the purchase of other debts.
Astra-Lombard LLP, which has paid 15.3 billion tenge in taxes since 2015, was registered in 1995 in Konayev, formerly Kapshagai, and belongs to the spouses Aivar and Svetlana Subalov, who also have other businesses – construction, real estate leasing, and jewellery sales.
MK-Zoloto Lombard LLP, with founders Aliya Makhanova since 2018 and Marina Son since 2023, has paid 14.7 billion tenge in taxes. Active Lombard LLP paid 2.8 billion tenge in taxes since 2015; founder – Sergey Koinov, director – Indira Shagraeva. Pawnshop Money to the People LLP, having only 20 branches, has paid a total of 7 billion tenge in taxes since 2015; founder – Lyudmila Kobzeva, director – Dmitry Shebeda.
CONTEXT
The concentration of capital is accompanied by an attempt by the industry to escape strict control. Through the National League of Pawnshops, the largest players are negotiating with the Agency of the Republic of Kazakhstan for Regulation and Development of the Financial Market (ARRDFM) about creating a separate segment from microfinance organisations (MFOs) and establishing a self-regulatory organisation that would be delegated some supervisory functions.
At the same time, the official dynamics of the number of market participants show the opposite trend: in 2020, at the time of introducing regulation, there were 3,089 pawnshops operating in Kazakhstan; by 2024 only 518 remained, and later, as Pavlov writes, the register shrank to 466. On the streets, however, the number of lending outlets continues to grow – as many as 2,754 projected for 2026. This means the business is concentrating: smaller players are being pushed out, and large chains are opening new branches faster than small ones are closing.
Stock exchange listings remain rare, even for large pawnshops. Only three companies in the sector have bonds registered on KASE – Birinshi Lombard, Safe-Lombard, and the small Lombard Progress, out of more than 500 active market participants. The reason lies in the cost of the procedure: KASE listing fees, as of 2024, started from 300 MCI and at least 100 MCI annually, plus expenses for auditing, coordination with the ARRDFM, and brokerage services. Coupon rates on pawnshop bonds remain in the range of 16–24% per annum. For comparison, the base rate of the National Bank of the Republic of Kazakhstan at the end of 2024 was 15.25–16.5%, meaning investors are offered a notable risk premium.
Regulatory pressure on the sector in 2024–2026 was significant: according to ARRDFM data, in 2024, 71 companies in the microfinance sector lost their licences – pawnshops, MFOs, credit partnerships; the regulator issued 97 written orders and imposed 687 fines totalling 228 million tenge. In January 2026, the ARRDFM suspended the licences of two more MFOs for failing to comply with orders.
In September 2025, the agency announced additional amendments to the law on microfinance organisations, aimed at closing loopholes for unscrupulous players using movable property as collateral.
WHAT THIS MEANS
The growth of pawnshops appears not as an independent trend, but rather as a side effect of the tightening of banking regulation. When banks were restricted from issuing consumer loans to reduce the population's debt burden, the demand for quick money did not disappear; it shifted to where no income certificate or credit history is required, because the loan is secured by physical collateral.
It is also interesting that the density of pawnshops is higher not in poor agrarian regions, but in the capital and large cities. This points not to poverty, but to cash flow gaps among the urban population – people have things to pawn (jewellery, electronics, cars), but lack a reserve until payday.
The ownership structure of the largest chains, as already discussed, clearly demonstrates the evolution of the business. Pawnshops are acquiring subsidiary MFOs, listing on the stock exchange, forming supervisory boards with independent directors – in short, they are increasingly resembling small financial groups rather than classic collateral shops. However, even among the seven largest market players, only two have undergone the stock exchange discipline of information disclosure, leaving the majority of the industry virtually opaque to an outside observer.
If the industry succeeds in achieving self-regulation, the largest players will gain the opportunity to independently set the rules by which they themselves will be inspected, including control over their own credit policies and handling consumer complaints.
For ordinary borrowers, the scenario of tightening bank lending alongside the growth of the pawnshop sector means more expensive access to money. The bond yields of pawnshops at 16–24% per annum give an indication of the real cost of capital in this segment, which is naturally passed on to the end borrower. If the trend continues, the urban population's dependence on short-term collateral loans could increase, especially against the backdrop of the shrinking official register of market participants, which reduces the overall transparency of the sector.