The National Bank of Kazakhstan has prepared a draft regulation that will prevent commercial banks from issuing banking cards to those foreigners who possess neither temporary residence permits nor regular residence permits. The draft regulation is available for public consideration on the legalact.egov.kz website.
According to the initiative, those foreigners and people with no citizenship who temporarily or permanently live in Kazakhstan have to possess a residence permit or temporary residence permit in order to obtain a banking card. The document also says that the issuing of a card is possible only if an applicant visits a bank in person and possesses documents proving his legal status in Kazakhstan like a job contract, education contract and residence permit. However, the agency hasn’t provided a list of all required documents.
The explanatory note to the draft regulation says that it is aimed at the prevention of illegal actions by foreigners. According to the National Bank, these are illicit trafficking of drugs and gambling.
In Kazakhstan, all foreigners without residence permits are considered as temporarily staying in the country. This means that this category of people also includes citizens of the EEU member states who have stayed in Kazakhstan with no residence permit for less than three months.
Kursiv has asked the National Bank to comment on this point.
So far, several Kazakhstani banks, including Halyk Bank, are issuing banking cards to all citizens from EEU member states legally staying in Kazakhstan without additional requirements. However, other credit entities like ForteBank do require an employment contract, residence permit or temporary residence permit.
Kazakhstan has become one of the most popular destinations for «banking card tourism» after Visa and Mastercard left Russia last spring due to Western sanctions. In this regard, the National Bank recommended Kazakhstani banks pay more attention to the verification of foreign clients in order to avoid secondary sanctions, Kursiv reports.
