Reduced online lending in Kazakhstan thanks to tightened rules

The National Bank of Kazakhstan introduced several changes last year that have affected online lending. Specifically, the Bank limited the annual effective rate to 100% and also reduced the total amount of repayment to a maximum of 100% of principal. In other words, a maximum of KZT 40,000 can be recovered from a loan of KZT 20,000. This has resulted in a drop in the number of active companies in the online lending market (from approximately 40 to approximately 27) as well as a reduction in the overall volume of online lending (from KZT 6.7 billion in January 2018 to KZT 5.2 billion in January 2019). As the online lending market has only been operating under the new conditions for a month, it remains to be seen if this is simply a temporary setback while new realities set in or if the new conditions are really hindering online lending. We should find out in 3-4 months as that will be an adequate timeframe for an in-depth, comprehensive analysis to be made.

Source: lsm.kz