Published
04/17/2026, 18:07Kyrgyzstan’s banking network has developed in a piecemeal fashion and today often operates with low efficiency. This was stated by Dmitry Vakin, co-founder of InteriseGroup.
According to him, there are up to nine different branch formats on the market, varying in design and functionality. This is the result of frequent changes in strategy without the previous stages being completed.
Some branches are overloaded, whilst others are underutilised. At the same time, many banks lack accurate analytics on traffic and efficiency.
“If it cannot be digitised, it cannot be managed,” the expert emphasised.
He also noted that the operational workload in branches reaches 70–80%, whilst only 20–30% of resources remain for customer development and sales. At the same time, the networks themselves are often positioned as a tool for personalisation, but in fact do not fulfil a sales function.
A separate risk relates to the duplication of channels. Customers come through various online and offline touchpoints, but banks do not see the full picture and continue to pay to re-acquire them. According to experts’ estimates, up to 35–40% of such customers are already served by the bank.
Another problem is the inefficient location of branches. Without accurate geodata analysis, banks do not always understand where to open new branches and how to manage existing footfall.
As a result, a significant portion of the infrastructure is used inefficiently, and decisions are made intuitively rather than on the basis of data. According to the expert, this directly affects financial performance and limits the banks’ growth potential.
