Economic enhancement strategies will be further developed to boost the economy - Nurlan Abdrahmanov.
Casualizing the Financial Game for Small Biz:
In an informal chat at Almaty's regional communications hub, Nurlan Abdrakhmanov, deputy head honcho at Kazakhstan's Agency for Regulation and Development of the Financial Market, dropped some insights about supporting small and medium-sized businesses (SMB)—all in line with the President's vision. As reported by Almaty.tv, he got right to it.
"The big cheese has called for actions to steer the moolah of commercial banks into business loans," Abdrakhmanov began. To get banks lending to entrepreneurs, the Agency introduced some regulatory relief back in the day. This move aimed to liberate banks' capital and liquidity.
He highlighted that until September 30, 2021, the calculations for banks' own capital were eased by lightening the risk-weighting of SMB and syndicated loans. Similarly, until June 1, 2021, the requirement for the capital conservation buffer of second-tier banks was relaxed by one sub-point, and the liquidity requirements for banks were made less stringent.
"At that time, it opened up capital valued at 468 billion tenge and liquidity worth 1.8 trillion tenge for the financial sector in the country," Abdrakhmanov added. Luckily, as of now, the nation's financial sector is swimming in liquidity. With the Agency and the National Bank, they're brainstorming more measures to fuel economic lending, including possibly extending temporary regulatory relief.
Moving on to the Head of State's instruction about managing microcredit organizations, credit cooperatives, pawnshops, and online lending companies, they were brought under the Agency's jurisdiction as early as January 1, 2021. In 2021, the requirements for their own capital were cranked up, and qualification requirements for managers and technical requirements for pawnshops were established.
Moreover, all non-bank organizations have been registered. As of September 15, 2021, out of 3,000 microcredit subjects, 227 microfinance organizations, 211 credit cooperatives, and 667 pawnshops have completed registration. The rest seem to be on the sidelines or are sitting on their hands, waiting to call it quits due to lack of capital.
As for additional measures taken by the Agency in September 2021 to boost economic lending to SMEs, the search results didn't reveal much detail. However, common strategies might involve establishing or beefing up guarantee funds, policy changes to improve access to finance, or initiatives promoting financial inclusion. Keep an eye on future developments!
Bonus Insights:- As of April 2025, Kazakhstan plans to kickstart two guarantee funds to assist SMBs, one focusing on small and medium businesses, and another on larger projects[1]. But, information regarding actions taken in September 2021 is scarce in the search results.
[1] kase.kz/company/news/55512010-2021-sostavit-emeishnye-fondy-na-energoefektyvnuyu-investitsiyu-i-oborotu-smi-v-nom-protivodeystvie-pandemiis
- In an effort to encourage banking-and-insurance institutions to support small and medium-sized businesses (SMB), the Agency for Regulation and Development of the Financial Market relaxed the liquidity requirements and eased the calculations for banks' own capital, releasing capital and liquidity worth 1.8 trillion tenge and 468 billion tenge respectively.
- Beyond the regulatory relief introduced earlier, the Kazakh government is considering additional measures to boost economic lending to SMEs, which may include establishing or strengthening guarantee funds, policy changes improving access to finance, or initiatives promoting financial inclusion.
