Tag Archives: finance

Azerbaijan cancels licence of another insurance company

MARCH 12 (The Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s Central Bank, the country’s financial regulator, cancelled the trading licence of Ravan Sigorta, an insurance company. This is the third licence of an insurance company that the Azerbaijani Central Bank has cancelled this year. The authorities in Azerbaijan have been pruning its financial sector of banks and other institutions that it considers to be too weak to survive another financial jolt.

ENDS

— This story was published in issue 475 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on March 15 2021

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

SamsungPay starts operations in Kazakhstan

MARCH 17 (The Bulletin) — Samsung Pay, the contactless smartphone payment system, is now available in Kazakhstan, Korean electronics-maker Samsung said in a statement. It said that Kazakhstan was added to its list of countries able to use the payment system on March 5 after six weeks of testing. It is now available in 26 countries around the world.

ENDS

— This story was first published in issue 440 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Finance company relocates from Bermuda to Nur Sultan’s AIFC

JAN. 9 2020 (The Bulletin) — The Astana International Finance Center (AIFC), the government-backed project in Nur Sultan that was supposed to kick start the Kazakh capital as a regional financial hub, said that a company called Kazakhstan Energy Reinsurance Company had relocated from Bermuda. The AIFC said that the Kazakhstan Energy Reinsurance Company, an affiliate of state energy company Kazmunaigas, would maintain all the legal rights it enjoyed in Bermuda.

ENDS

— This story was first published in issue 433 of the weekly Bulletin on Jan. 13 2020

— Copyright owned by the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

Rakishev buys Kazakh insurance company

JAN. 4 2020 (The Bulletin) — Fincraft Investment House, the finance company owned by Kazakh businessman Kenes Rakishev, said that it was close to completing the purchase of Amanat, a mid-sized Kazakh insurance company. Neither Fincraft or Amanat gave details on the cost of the deal. Mr Rakishev is one of Kazakhstan’s most high-profile businessmen.

ENDS

— This story was first published in issue 433 of the weekly Bulletin on Jan. 13 2020

— Copyright owned by the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

To win business, foreign finance companies will need to open office in Uzbekistan

DEC. 2 (The Bulletin) — As its capital markets develop, the Uzbek government plans to bring in a law that will force brokers arranging Eurobonds for domestic companies to operate from an office in Uzbekistan. Quoting Uzbek officials, Reuters reported that the plan was designed to force foreign banks looking to make a profit from setting up Eurobond deals, to invest in Uzbekistan and develop local expertise.
ENDS

— This story was first published in issue 431 of the weekly Bulletin on Dec. 9 2019

Copyright owned by the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

Tajikistan blocks major Russian remittance services

DUSHANBE/Dec. 4 (The Bulletin) –Tajikistan’s Central Bank blocked Koronapay and Western Union, two of the most popular money transfer services with Tajiks working in Russia, from sending cash into the country and instead insisted that people use two smaller services.

Earlier this year, the Tajik Central Bank took over control of the country’s transfer sorting system with, it now appears, the aim of controlling which services migrant workers use to send their cash home.

In a terse statement, the Tajik Central Bank said that it was only processing payments from the Unistream and Contact wire transfer systems.

“In future credit organisations will not consider the 9-digit code of the payment system Golden Crown,” it said.

Golden Crown is the brand name used by Koronapay which had sent an estimated 80% of Tajikistan’s remittances from Russia.

The following day the Central Bank published photos of a meeting with Unistream’s chief Kirill Palchun and said that commissions on wire transfers had been reduced from 1.5% to 0.99%.
Both Unistream and Contact are Russian money transfer systems but are far smaller than Western Union and Koronapay.

Analysts have said that the Tajik government may have wanted to take control of the wire transfer system because it is a lucrative cash generator. Tajiks working in Russia contribute up to half of the country’s GDP.

The Tajik Central Bank has previously said that it had taken over the transfer sorting system to protect customers from theft and corruption.

It also defended its decision to strip Koronapay and Western Union of permission to send cash from Russia because they had failed to comply with new legislation.
ENDS

— This story was first published in issue 431 of the weekly Bulletin on Dec. 9 2019

Copyright owned by the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

Uzbekistan signs $2.6b of deals with US companies

SEPT. 20  (The Bulletin) — Uzbek media reported that on the sidelines of President Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s trip to the UN General Assembly in New York, a delegation had signed a series of deals with US businesses worth $2.6b. It said that the deals covered a range of potential investments and included companies such as Boeing and Visa. Uzbekistan has said it wants more foreign investment. 

ENDS

— This story was first published in issue 344 of The Conway Bulletin, now called the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on Sept. 24 2017.

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2017