Proposed amendments to regulate the Kazakhstani online loan market

The National Bank of Kazakhstan has developed a number of amendments that will regulate online lending. Specifically, the amendments will:

Require loans be issued only in the national currency
Establish a maximum annual effective interest rate of 100% of the loan amount
Set maximum total repayment amounts (including penalties, fees and other sums under the loan agreement)
Set maximum penalties for loan agreement violations at 0.5% of the unfulfilled amount per day and 10% of the loan amount issued per year
Disallow the indexation of payments with a foreign currency
Disallow changes in agreed upon amounts that would represent an increase for the borrower

Additionally, any loan agreement found to violate the other proposed amendments will be nullified, with borrowers having the right to not fulfill any payment obligations in such cases. The National Bank will also place a loan calculator on its website to help borrowers in calculating the annual effective interest rate of their loans.

Source: lsm.kz