The Agency for Regulation and Development of the Financial Market of the Republic of Kazakhstan has set out plans to introduce a conduct supervision system aimed at preventing breaches of financial services consumer rights. The approach is positioned as comparable in importance to prudential supervision and is intended to give the regulator a more comprehensive view of consumer risks embedded in financial institutions’ business models when they offer financial products, drawing on the G20 international principles for consumer protection. The planned framework would harmonise product governance requirements to ensure product features align with consumers’ interests and characteristics, and would allow the Agency to suspend the provision of financial products until identified risks or weaknesses in risk management are remedied. It also envisages introducing responsible lending principles for credit products to reduce excessive debt-burden risks, tightening disclosure and advertising requirements, and limiting unfair practices, alongside measures intended to reduce misconduct and fraud. In parallel, the process for handling consumer complaints would be revised so financial institutions must first review and decide on complaints, with disputes then able to be considered by a unified financial ombudsman service as the main pre-court dispute resolution mechanism; financial institutions would also be required to run initiatives to improve consumers’ financial literacy.

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