Research relevance is significantly increasing. Sanctions from the collective West are changing the main instruments in the banking sector related to interbank settlements and transactions. The largest Russian banks are under sanctions due to the special military operation. Several largest backbone Russian banks are disconnecting from the international system of electronic interbank financial settlements SWIFT. Banks are tasked with improving and modernizing the main banking instruments for Kazakhstan. This situation should lead to greater use of digital technologies and elimination of technological dependence in conducting basic banking operations. Restrictions also gave motivation for advancement of digital banking in Russia and Kazakhstan. Banking digital twins will soon become extremely necessary and effective. As copies of the real-world, DT may provide informed decision-making based on the real interaction of complex systems. They may present detail-based information instead of just educated assumptions. That is what makes them such a powerful weapon in the arsenal of any business. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024.