APRIL 12 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan-based Capital bank promoted Bakhtiyar Ilyasov to be chairman, replacing Ghani Uzbekov. He had previously been the bank’s deputy chairman. In a note, the bank said that Mr Ilyasov would oversee the merger with Tengri bank, announced in March.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 324, published on April 13 2017)
APRIL 6 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Tajikistan’s banking sector needs urgent reform if it is going to pull out of the current crisis, the Asian Development Bank said. Among other things, Tajik banks should increase their capital levels and improve their ownership transparency. Tajikistan’s banks have been teetering on the verge of bankruptcy. Only investments from the government and international institutional banks have averted a collapse of the banking sector.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 324, published on April 13 2017)
APRIL 7 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijani MPs have passed a law allowing banks weighed down by debt to transfer their good assets to so-called bridge-banks, media reported. The concept, which inadvertently suggests that the Azerbaijani banking crisis is deepening, suggests that these bridge-banks are then able to re- package the sound assets into new banks which can then be sold on. Several small banks have been closed down in Azerbaijan over the past few years and the government this year bought a controlling state in International Bank of Azerbaijan, the country’s largest bank.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 324, published on April 13 2017)
MARCH 29 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kariat Kelimbetov, the former Kazakh Central Bank chief who is now heading the development of the Astana International Finance Centre, has been appointed Kazakhstan’s representative on the board of directors at the Islamic Development Bank (IDB). The IDB’s main agenda is to promote projects which adhere to Sharia laws. Islamic finance is growing in popularity in Kazakhstan and the wider Central Asia region.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 323, published on April 6 2017)
ALMATY, MARCH 21 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Looking to ape the World Bank’s global ‘Ease of Doing Business’ survey, Kazakh officials said they wanted to set up a regional version covering all of Kazakhstan.
The survey will measure how difficult, or easy, Kazakh and foreign companies find it to do business in Kazakhstan’s regions, providing data for investors and the government.
Serzhan Madiyev, head of the state-linked Economic Research Institute said that the index had been ordered by President Nursultan Nazarbayev.
“We provide recommendations to the government on what needs to be done to raise the position in this rating every year,” he told the state- owned Astana Times newspaper. “It
is very important for attracting foreign investments.”
Kazakhstan has been looking to attract more investors, and its ‘Ease of Doing Business’ ranking by the World Bank has improved. In 2017, it was ranked in 35th position. The World Bank survey, though, doesn’t measure corruption, one of the main grudges that foreign investors have.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 322, published on March 27 2017)
MARCH 23 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Armenia was one of 13 new members to be approved by the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). This was the first new intake of members at the AIIB since its inception in January 2016 and brings its total to 70. In the Central Asia/South Caucasus region, only Turkmenistan has declined to join the AIIB. The US, a non-member, sees the AIIB as an attempt by China to try to extend its influence.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 322, published on March 27 2017)f
MARCH 17 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijani officials said that it was too early to start privatising the International Bank of Azerbaijan, the country’s largest bank, going back on a pledge made at the end of last year. In an interview with Reuters, Rustam Tahirov, strategic services department head at Financial Market Supervision Agency, said that the government wasn’t able to reduce its 76.73% stake in IBA. It increased its stake from 55% at the start of the year, effectively propping up IBA during an economic downturn that has threatened to scupper the Azerbaijani banking sector.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 322, published on March 27 2017)
ALMATY, MARCH 15 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan’s Central Bank confirmed that it would buy up 2.4 trillion tenge ($7.5b) of bad debt owned by Kazkommertsbank, effectively subsidising its purchase by Halyk Bank.
Halyk Bank, owned by the daughter and son-in-law of Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev, agreed to buy Kazkommertsbank earlier this year for an undisclosed amount in a deal that will give it a 38% market share and Kazakhstan’s elite control of the banking sector.
The 2.4 trillion tenge bad debt held by Kazkommertsbank is a legacy of its purchase of BTA Bank from the government. The government had
bought it in 2008/9 when it was about to collapse during the Global Financial Crisis.
Separately, deputy Central Bank chairman Oleg Smolyakov said it would take two to three months for Halyk Bank to carry out its due diligence of Kazkommertsbank before the takeover could be completed.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 321, published on March 20 2017)
MARCH 14 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan’s Eurasian Bank plans to expand into Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Georgia and Azerbaijan in a bid to become a truly regional operator, its CEO Pavel Loginov said in an interview with Forbes Kazakhstan. Almaty, the former capital of Kazakhstan, is considered the financial capital of Central Asia but the only two banks in the region listed on the London Stock Exchange are both Georgian — Bank of Georgia and TBC.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 321, published on March 20 2017)
MARCH 14 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Association of Financiers of Kazakhstan, an industry lobby group, and Islamic Development Bank have signed a deal to look at ways of developing Islamic finance in Kazakhstan, media reported. There are currently two banks in Kazakhstan practising Islamic banking — Zaman Bank and Bank Al-Hilal.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 321, published on March 20 2017)