The Agency for Regulation and Development of the Financial Market (ARDFM) plans to change financial monitoring rules. If the draft is approved, banks will have to request more documents from non-residents and revise their risk level.
What happened
According to the draft amendments, banks will expand the list of documents for verifying foreign citizens. To confirm the legality of their stay in Kazakhstan, the following may be required:
- a passport with border crossing stamps;
- an employment contract;
- documents confirming studies;
- a residence permit or other permit documents.
Special attention is paid to the risk profile. It is proposed to automatically classify clients without a residence permit or permanent residence permit as high-risk. This was reported by a specialized Telegram channel citing the draft document. The draft amendments have not yet been published on the regulator’s official resources.
Country and market
The initiative concerns banks and fits into the ARDFM’s overall strategy to strengthen KYC (know your customer) procedures. This is part of a broader package of AML/CFT amendments. Previously, the agency updated financial monitoring requirements with a transition period until July 12, 2026.
The new rules for foreigners complement this regulatory framework. For Kazakhstan’s banking sector, which actively works with non-residents and welcomes new foreign players — Finteqstan previously wrote about the registration of a subsidiary bank of the Arab ADCB — this means a revision of established onboarding processes.
Why it matters
Expanding the list of documents may slow down the account opening process if banks continue to check papers manually. Market participants will likely have to reconfigure their scoring models to fit the new risk criteria.
Stricter compliance could become a driver for local fintech providers, who will offer banks ready-made digital KYC solutions and automated integration with government databases.
What’s next
The document is at the preparation stage. The exact dates for the new rules to come into force will become known after the official publication of the draft on the Open Legal Acts portal or the regulator’s website. Banks will have to assess the readiness of their infrastructure to collect and analyze the expanded data package.