Majilis passes draft law on e-money in third reading

The Majilis (lower chamber of the Kazakhstan’s Parliament) has passed the draft legislation on e-money today in its third reading, Interfax – Kazakhstan reports. The draft law has been sent to the country’s Senate for further consideration. The legislation seeks to lay legal framework for issuance and use of e-money in Kazakhstan and regulate relations with regards to e-money transactions.“With the new legislation in place, transactions between Kazakhstan-based e-retailers and Internet users can only be performed using e-money issued by local entities (…) one of the requirement to the e-money is that it should be tenge-denominated”, Vice Chairman of the National Bank Bisengali Tadjiyakov earlier announced when presenting the draft law in the Majilis. “The right to issue e-money has been given to banks, since issuance involves a number of banking operations”, Mr. Tadjiyakov said. According to Mr. Tadjiyakov, non-banking organizations will be able to sell and buy e-money issued by banks and deal with operations related to use of e-money.