Why Kazakhstan’s Financial Companies Are Being Pushed Toward Aitu

Kazakhstan’s financial regulator has urged insurers and other market participants to move customer communications to the domestic messenger Aitu, Orda.kz reports.

Bloomberg, citing sources, says the Agency for Regulation and Development of the Financial Market sent a letter to insurance companies and other financial sector players calling for the shift. The regulator is reportedly ready to make an exception only for banking ecosystems.

According to the publication, the issue was discussed in March at a meeting organized by a key financial sector lobbying group. The regulator’s main argument was the need to protect customers’ personal data.

Bloomberg sources say the agency is acting on behalf of the presidential administration and that the push to move the financial sector to Aitu is part of a broader campaign to promote the Kazakh messenger.

The authorities are said to be concerned about the safety of citizens’ personal data. Market participants, however, have raised questions about the reliability of data storage in Aitu, the costs of switching to the platform, and the messenger’s still limited user base.

Aitu was launched in 2018 by BTS Digital, a company associated with Kazakhtelecom. It started as a messenger, but later added payment services and some public services. According to the developer, Aitu had more than one million active users in March.

Original author: Alexey Afonsky

Read also:

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