Bank CenterCredit calls 25 November shareholder vote on Islamic banking licence

The board of directors of Bank CenterCredit, the Almaty-based lender listed on the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange as CCBN, has called an extraordinary general meeting for 25 November 2026 to vote on the bank's intention to obtain a licence for Islamic banking operations, according to a notice the bank published on 23 October. The meeting was convened by board resolution No. 1022/1 of 22 October, and the list of shareholders entitled to vote is drawn from the Central Securities Depository register as of the same date.

The agenda has three items: the intention to obtain the Islamic banking licence, amendments and additions to the bank's charter, and the appointment of members of a Council on Islamic Finance Principles. The notice does not name the candidates for the council, give its size or set out the proposed charter wording. The exchange carried the same three-item agenda in a KASE notice dated 23 October.

How the meeting will run

The meeting is due to start at 10:00 local time at the bank's head office at 38 Al-Farabi Avenue in Almaty's Medeu district, with registration from 9:30. The notice describes it as held in person and via Zoom. Meeting materials will be available at the head office from 15 November, between 9:00 and 18:00, to shareholders who bring photo identification, and will be sent on request within three business days, but not before 15 November.

If the meeting fails to reach a quorum, a repeat meeting with the same agenda is set for 27 November at 10:00, again in person and via Zoom. Under Article 52(1) of the Law on Joint Stock Companies, No. 415-II of 13 May 2003, the minutes must be drawn up and signed within three business days of the meeting closing, the notice says. It cites articles 36 to 37, 39 to 48 and 50 to 52 of the same law, together with the bank's charter, as the basis for holding the meeting.

A second large bank on the same path

Bank CenterCredit would follow Halyk Bank, whose shareholders approved an Islamic banking licence bid and a sharia council last month. Boards and Capital reported the Halyk decisions on 23 October. In its announcement of the results on 25 September, Halyk said its absentee vote resolved "To approve obtaining the Islamic banking operation license" and "To establish JSC Halyk Bank Islamic Financing Principles Council", with 7,852,463,453 votes cast out of 8,170,862,516 voting shares and none against on the licence item.

Halyk's shareholders fixed the council at three members for a one-year term and elected Aznan Hasan, Salim Al Ali and Aida Othman. The term was the only contested item among those resolutions, with 36,405,640 votes against. Halyk's agenda ran in a different order, from the licence through the council's creation, size, term and members to the charter and the auditor, but it covered the same three elements that Bank CenterCredit has now put to its shareholders: the licence, charter amendments and the council.

Both banks are seeking licences after Kazakhstan's new banking law, which President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev signed on 16 January 2026. Kursiv reported that the law allows conventional banks to open Islamic banking units with separate asset accounting, staff teams and audit, and that a special council will assess whether financial products comply with sharia. The council that Bank CenterCredit's shareholders are being asked to appoint would play that role for the bank.

Capital already in motion

The Islamic banking vote comes while the bank is buying back its own shares. On 1 September it decided to repurchase up to 6.8 million ordinary shares at 4,399 tenge each, for up to 29.99 billion tenge, on KASE between 10 September and 31 December 2026, Forbes Kazakhstan reported, citing exchange data. The same report put the bank's placed ordinary shares at 188.03 million, of which 11.95 million were held in treasury, matching the 11.95 million bought under the 2025 programme.

Bank CenterCredit is one of the listed lenders whose shares make up the KASE equity market, whose value in tenge and dollars Boards and Capital tracked for September.

What is not yet known

The notice does not say when the bank plans to apply to the regulator, how large an Islamic unit it intends to build, which products it would offer or whether the council candidates will be named before the materials are released on 15 November. The agenda item is worded as the bank's intention to obtain a licence; the notice does not describe the licensing process that would follow the vote.

Shareholders on the 22 October register vote on 25 November, with 27 November held in reserve if the first meeting is inquorate. The minutes, which will record who is appointed to the Council on Islamic Finance Principles, are due within three business days of the meeting closing.