The AFM Department for Almaty has uncovered illegal activities by six microfinance organisations (MFOs).
According to the department's press service, an investigation is being conducted into fraud and illegal entrepreneurial activity against the management of «MFO «Creditum», «MFO «Sofi Finance», «MFO «Hava Finance», «MFO «SF Offline», «MFO «POS Credit» and «MFO «Salem Credit».
It has been reported that MFO borrowers with overdue payments were forced to sign guarantee agreements with affiliated companies through the «KOKE KZ», «TENGO KZ» and «HAVA KZ» platforms.
«At the same time, the guarantor's liability arose only in the event of the borrower's death. A fee was charged for this 'service', many times exceeding the amount of the original loan, which trapped citizens in a debt cycle. As a result, borrowers paid 3-5 times more than the loan amount», the statement said.
For example, one debtor who took out a loan of 120,000 tenge paid 446,000 tenge under the guarantee, excluding the principal debt and interest.
«Thus, the main portion of the MFOs' income consisted of payments under fictitious guarantee agreements», the AFM noted.
According to preliminary data, citizens suffered damages amounting to 30 billion tenge as a result of the activities of these MFOs.
It will be recalled that in February, the prosecutor's office of the Abay region discovered that local MFOs issued loans without conducting biometric identification of borrowers, which allowed fraudsters to take out loans in citizens' names without their knowledge.