The National Bank of Kazakhstan has proposed that the Ministry of Justice change the mechanism for freezing debtors’ bank accounts. The regulator is initiating two amendments: keeping the subsistence minimum on a frozen account and eliminating multiple blockages of funds. Kapital.kz reports this, citing a response to a parliamentary inquiry by Deputy Governor of the National Bank Daniyar Vagapov.
What the regulator proposes
First, to enshrine in law a procedure where the subsistence minimum is preserved when a debtor’s account is frozen.
Second, to grant banks the right to execute a freeze on only one account. If a bailiff sends orders to other accounts of the same person, the bank will be able to return them. This should solve the problem of multiple blockages, where mass mailing of orders to all banks freezes funds significantly exceeding the actual debt.
The current problem
Under current rules for standard bank write-offs (based on a payment demand), financial institutions cannot collect more than 50% of the amount and must keep two subsistence minimums on the account monthly. In 2026, this limit is 101,702 tenge, bes.media notes.
However, when executing collection orders from bailiffs, the subsistence minimum is not legally protected. The bank must execute the order for the entire specified amount using the balance and new deposits.
The scale of the problem
According to the Ministry of Justice, the accounts of over 1.5 million Kazakhstanis are currently frozen under enforcement proceedings. Meanwhile, the total volume of non-performing loans overdue by more than 90 days has reached 1.8 trillion tenge, according to ARDFM data.
The National Bank is trying to close a technical loophole in the collection process that leaves debtors entirely without a livelihood.
The regulator has already sent proposals to the Ministry of Justice and announced its readiness to jointly develop the necessary legislative amendments.