The creation of a private intermediary monopolist is discrediting state policy

Today, at a press conference at the Kazakhstan Press Club, representatives of the country’s leading payment organizations asked the Senate of Parliament to return for re-consideration to the Mazhilis the norm creating a private intermediary monopolist in the payment services market, Liter.kz reports.

We are talking about the emergence of the Unified Accounting System (USS), which is actually a new version of the Rate Accounting Center (RAC). The structure will perform the functions of payment organizations and banks, including making payments, maintaining a single electronic wallet and settlements with clients, and it is expected that the volume of the regulated market will be 1.2 trillion tenge per year.

Experts expressed concerns about the creation of the ESU, believing that it will turn into an artificial monopolist that will occupy a significant market share in the field of transaction business, acquiring and servicing electronic wallets.

“We were deceived by fulfilling promises in the most hypocritical way! They excluded the central control system from the law and included the unified state control system in the bill, which is essentially the same thing. Before our eyes, a monopolist, a private operator, is being created. And it is being created contrary to President Tokayev’s promises to society. This discredits the entire policy of the Head of State to reboot the state apparatus and the economy,” said Ilya Efimenko, commercial director of the payment organization PayDala, in this regard.

It was also noted that the introduction of the Unified Control System could have a negative impact on manufacturers of payment terminals. The director of the Almaty Enterprising Company plant, Alexander Sirotenko, believes that the creation of the ESU will lead to a sharp reduction in orders and will negatively affect the production of payment terminals in Kazakhstan.

“This will affect not only our plant, but also the entire terminal manufacturing market. The jobs of thousands of our citizens across the country will be at risk,” he said.

For his part, entrepreneur Beibut Asanbaev expressed confidence that the creation of an unified system will directly affect ordinary consumers of the services of payment organizations, and this will especially hit the so-called outback:

“Payment terminals are installed not only in big cities, but also in small villages where there are no ATMs. The introduction of ESU will kill our business and complicate the lives of villagers. Reducing the number of terminals will make it difficult to make social payments and will take away income from small and medium-sized businesses.”

At the same time, the participants of the press conference expressed particular concern about the fact that the norm on the Unified Control System appeared without a mandatory analysis of the regulatory impact and examination of the National Bank. In this regard, payment organizations urge senators to return the bill to the Mazhilis to carry out all procedures provided for by law and study alternative options that do not require the creation of a monopolist intermediary.