The Agency for Regulation and Development of the Financial Market of the Republic of Kazakhstan published an update on its January 2025 consumer-protection and supervisory work, centred on borrower complaints about fraud, support for restructuring consumer debt and measures to reduce debt burdens. It reviewed 13,444 appeals relating to banks, microfinance organisations, collection agencies, and insurance and securities market participants, up 14.3% from December 2024, and imposed administrative penalties totalling KZT 14.8 million. Banks accounted for 53.6% of appeals, followed by microfinance organisations at 36.2%, collection agencies at 4.3%, insurers at 1.0%, other organisations at 4.2% and unnamed financial organisations at 0.7%. Supervisory outcomes included one recommendatory supervisory response measure, one written order and seven administrative penalties arising from 28 administrative-offence protocols, including penalties against banks totalling KZT 983,000, microfinance organisations totalling KZT 12.9 million, an insurer totalling KZT 393,200 and a collection agency totalling KZT 369,200. The update also reported implementation of the Mortgage Housing Loan Refinancing Programme in three tracks. As of 1 February 2025, banks had refinanced 32,700 mortgages issued in 2004–2020 for KZT 204.9 billion and converted or refinanced 15,700 foreign-currency mortgages issued before 1 January 2016 for KZT 114 billion, with foreign-currency conversion and refinancing running until 31 December 2025. Banks had also provided additional support measures of KZT 93.1 billion to 10,600 borrowers in socially vulnerable categories, with support continuing until 31 December 2025 through debt reduction, preferential repayment schedules and returning a borrower’s only home from a bank’s balance sheet to the borrower’s ownership.

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