The Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan «On the Restoration of Solvency and Bankruptcy of Citizens of the Republic of Kazakhstan» (hereinafter referred to as the Law) applies to relations arising in connection with the insolvency of a citizen of the Republic of Kazakhstan who is not registered as an individual entrepreneur.

The Law provides for three procedures:

• out-of-court bankruptcy;
• restoration of solvency;
• judicial bankruptcy.

The grounds and conditions for filing an application for the application of these procedures are established by Articles 5 and 6 of the Law.

According to paragraph 1 of Article 5 of the Law, out-of-court bankruptcy applies exclusively to debts owed to banks, microfinance organizations, and collection agencies (regardless of their status, whether their license has been revoked, they have been liquidated, are in the process of liquidation, or excluded from the register), as well as other organizations holding claim rights under bank loan agreements, loan (credit) agreements, and microcredit agreements with individuals, under the following conditions:

1. the debt does not exceed 1,600 MCI (in 2026 – 6 920 200 tenge);
2. the debt has not been repaid for 12 months;
3. the individual has no property rights, including property in joint ownership;
4. debt settlement procedures with banks and microfinance organizations have been carried out.

In addition, the Law provides for special conditions:

• for recipients of targeted social assistance for a period of 6 months, the requirement regarding the period of non-repayment of debt does not apply;
• for individuals whose debt has not been repaid for more than five years, the requirement regarding the absence of property does not apply, and there are no restrictions on the amount of debt.

A citizen may submit an application via the «E-gov» portal and Public Service Centers, provided that the specified conditions for applying the procedure are met.

Additional information on the application procedure can be obtained by calling 1414 (extension 3) or via the Telegram chat https://t.me/SalyqBot . This service is provided free of charge.

The grounds for filing an application with the court for the application of the debt restructuring procedure (restoration of solvency) are the fact that the value of the debtor’s property exceeds the total amount of his obligations (including those not yet due), and/or the presence of a stable income (paragraph 1 of Article 6 of the Law).

The judicial bankruptcy procedure is applied in cases where the debtor has property, or in relation to debts owed to second-tier banks, microfinance organizations, and collection agencies, as well as other organizations holding claim rights under bank loan agreements with individuals, exceeding 1,600 MCI, or in relation to obligations to other persons regardless of the amount of the debt (paragraph 2 of Article 6 of the Law).

An additional mandatory condition for applying the judicial bankruptcy procedure is the absence of any debt repayment for a period of 12 months.

A citizen submits an application for the application of judicial bankruptcy or restoration of solvency to the court at their place of residence.

The authorized body appoints a financial administrator within two working days from the date the court issues a ruling to initiate the judicial bankruptcy procedure (paragraph 1 of Article 23 of the Law).

The remuneration of the financial administrator is paid from the debtor’s funds.

The monthly remuneration of a financial administrator amounts to one minimum wage established by the Law on the republican budget for the corresponding financial year (in 2026 – 85,000 tenge).

However, if the debtor belongs to socially vulnerable groups of the population and has no property, the remuneration of the financial administrator is paid from budgetary funds.

In addition, when filing an application with the court for the application of the debt restructuring procedure (restoration of solvency) or judicial bankruptcy, a state duty must be paid in the amount of 0.3 MCI (currently 1,297.5 tenge) (subparagraph 14) of paragraph 1 of Article 665 of the Tax Code).

At the same time, citizens who have undergone bankruptcy procedures:

• are not eligible to obtain loans from banks and microfinance organizations for a period of 5 years;
• may reapply for the application of the above-mentioned procedures only after 7 years;
• are subject to financial status monitoring for 3 years after bankruptcy.

Amendments to the Law

The first amendments were adopted on 19 June 2024. At that time, the grounds for applying the debt restructuring (restoration of solvency) procedure were revised. Initially, the application of this procedure required the absence of debt repayments for 12 months and the existence of property. These criteria were later removed by the amendments. This led to an increase in the number of applicants seeking to apply the procedure. Thus, while prior to the amendments no more than 20 citizens had applied for the procedure, the number of those who have since applied has reached 883.

In addition, the procedure for submitting an application for out-of-court bankruptcy was simplified, and the requirement to take debt settlement measures for debts not repaid for more than 12 months was removed. As a result, the number of refusals to apply the procedure due to the absence of debt settlement has decreased.

Furthermore, the list of creditors under this procedure was expanded, allowing citizens to apply the procedure to debts owed to organizations that are not banks or microfinance institutions, but which previously carried out lending activities to individuals.

The following amendments were signed on 30 June 2025. These amendments established that the requirement to carry out debt settlement does not apply to bank loan agreements and microcredit agreements concluded before 1 January 2025. They also grant the debtor the right to voluntarily terminate the out-of-court bankruptcy procedure without stating any reasons.

The current year has also begun with small but conceptual changes to the out-of-court bankruptcy procedure. Thus, on 16 January 2026, amendments were introduced providing for:

• the exclusion of pawnshops from the list of creditors under the out-of-court bankruptcy procedure;
• a reduction of the duration of the out-of-court bankruptcy procedure to 1 (one) month in cases where the debtor’s debt does not exceed 1,600 MCI and the period of non-performance exceeds 5 (five)