Kazakh Banks Succeed in Preventing Loan Rate Reduction

A major Kazakh financial lobby group thwarted an effort to set a much lower cap on unsecured loans popular with the vast majority of the workforce, according to people familiar with the matter, all but undoing one of the signature initiatives in the country after last year’s deadly riots.

Shaken by the unrest that’s been blamed on corruption and inequality, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev tried to claw back popularity with such measures as legislation on individual bankruptcy filings. This past March, the financial regulator followed with a proposal to decrease the rate limit on credit without collateral, which is held by more than three-quarters of the country’s economically active population.

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