Kazakhstan Tightens Online Loan Rules To Fight Fraud

Kazakh banks will be required to conduct stricter checks before issuing online loans, Orda.kz reports.

The Agency for Regulation and Development of the Financial Market has approved new requirements for banks. The regulator aims to block one of the most common fraud schemes, in which scammers posing as “security service” employees pressure people into taking out loans and transferring the money to a so-called safe account.

Under the new rules, online loan agreements cannot be concluded without biometric verification. Before issuing a loan, banks will have to link the application to the client’s phone number, send a one-time code by SMS or push notification, and conduct a biometric check.

For unsecured consumer loans starting from 150 MCI, or about 649,000 tenge, biometric verification will be carried out through the National Bank’s Identification Data Exchange Center.

A waiting period will also be introduced for larger loans. For unsecured online loans of 255 MCI or more, or about 1.1 million tenge, the money can be issued no earlier than 24 hours after the agreement is signed. For smaller loans with a high fraud risk, the pause will be at least eight hours. These rules will take effect at the end of July.

From October 1, 2026, banks will also use an anti-fraud questionnaire. Clients will be asked who suggested they take out the loan, whether they received calls from a “security service” or “police,” whether they were asked to transfer money to a “safe account,” and whether they were told to hide the loan from the bank or relatives.

If the answers show signs of pressure, the bank must conduct an additional check. It will then be able to issue the loan, suspend the application, or refuse it.

The same document also includes other borrower protections. For example, banks will no longer be allowed to impose additional services when issuing loans or hide them in contracts in small print.

Original author: Alexandr Zhdanov

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