Kazakh Financial Watchdog Urges Firms to Use Local Messenger

Kazakhstan’s financial watchdog is urging insurers and some financial firms to shift client communications to a homegrown messaging app, according to people familiar with the matter, part of a wider campaign to move users away from foreign alternatives.

A key lobbying group for the nation’s finance industry convened a meeting last month with insurers and brokers to discuss a letter from the country’s financial markets regulator calling for the mandatory use of the local Aitu application as part of efforts to protect personal data, the people said, asking not to be identified as the information isn’t public.