The Agency for Regulation and Development of the Financial Market of Kazakhstan has denied false information circulating about its activities and clarified that regulation of the Unified Interbank QR code falls outside its mandate. The agency also reported on the results of its supervisory work, including revocation of licenses from microfinance organizations and collection agencies, reduction of the population's debt burden, and the fight against financial fraud, according to the website infohub.kz.
The agency emphasized that, under the law 'On the National Bank of the Republic of Kazakhstan,' the functioning of the QR code and regulation of payment systems are within the purview of the National Bank. 'The agency does not set fees for interbank acquiring or regulate the tariff policy of payment systems,' the agency stated.
At the same time, the agency highlighted the results of its supervisory activities. Constant oversight is maintained over microfinance organizations: since 2021, licenses have been revoked from 127 microfinance organizations and 135 collection agencies for violations. In 2024–2026 alone, 55 microfinance organizations and 29 collection agencies lost their licenses. About 1,600 administrative fines totaling over 500 million tenge have been imposed for legal violations.
The agency also reported on measures to reduce the debt burden of the population. In 2025, principal debt, interest, fines, and penalties were fully or partially written off for 33,900 borrowers, and 722,000 borrowers received debt restructuring.
The agency separately reminded of changes adopted jointly with the National Bank in 2024. At that time, maximum annual effective interest rates were reduced: for unsecured bank loans and microloans, the maximum rate was cut from 56% to 46%; for secured loans, from 56% to 40%. For online microloans of up to 45 MCI with a term of no more than 45 days, the maximum daily rate was reduced from 1% to 0.3%.
Considerable attention is being paid to the fight against financial fraud. Counteraction to fraudulent schemes is carried out jointly with law enforcement agencies, the National Bank, and market participants. The National Bank's Anti-Fraud Center operates to promptly identify and stop suspicious transactions, ensuring real-time information exchange. Since the beginning of 2025, its work has prevented over 163,000 fraudulent transactions worth more than 68 billion tenge, while an additional 28.9 billion tenge in transactions were blocked.
At the legislative level, measures have been implemented to prevent fraudulent loan origination: mandatory biometric identification of borrowers, a cooling-off period for online loans, a requirement for personal presence when obtaining the first loan, a ban on accruing interest on fraudulent loans during investigations, and expanded grounds for out-of-court and judicial write-off of such loans. In 2025, banks and microfinance organizations wrote off 1,600 fraudulent loans worth 1.9 billion tenge.
The agency stressed that information on the measures being taken is regularly published in the annual reports of the agency and the National Bank, as well as in monthly reviews on the official websites of the agencies.