NOV. 15 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The state-run International Bank of Azerbaijan (IBA) plans to issue a $500 million Eurobond in 2014, its first debt issue since 2007, media reported. In 2007, the IBA $600m with a debt issue. It cancelled subsequent issues because of the poor state of the market during the global financial crisis.
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(News report from Issue No. 161, published on Nov. 20 2013)
NOV. 20 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — When the Kazakh government orders something to be done, it generally gets done so when Halyk Bank declined an invitation to effectively buy out the state’s shares in BTA Bank, it was clear that something was up.
The Kazakh government wants to unite the country’s pension funds. It offered its 97% stake in BTA Bank in return for Halyk Bank’s private pension fund. Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s second daughter Dinara and her husband, Timur Kulibayev, own Halyk Bank, the second biggest in Kazakhstan.
Mr Kulibayev used to be the darling of Kazakh politics and business and was talked about as a successor to Mr Nazarbayev. His star has waned, though, since a riot in western Kazakhstan killed 15 people in 2011.
At the time he was in charge of Samruk-Kazyna, Kazakhstan’s sovereign wealth fund. He was blamed for the riot and his rivals have been trying to undermine him since.
Reports from Kazakhstan have said that he has recently rowed with senior government officials and argued with his father-in-law.
Rejecting an order for his bank, Halyk Bank, to buy out the government’s shares in BTA Bank may be a public expression of this discontent.
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(News report from Issue No. 161, published on Nov. 20 2013)
OCT. 31 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan wants to turn itself into a regional centre for Islamic finance, various Kazakh officials said at a conference in London. Islamic finance is becoming an increasingly popular way of branding banks.
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(News report from Issue No. 159, published on Nov. 6 2013)
OCT. 31 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — At a conference in London, Kazakh officials were eager to talk about plans to turn Kazakhstan into a centre for Islamic finance.
Islamic finance is the term used to define investments made, basically, with Islamic principles in mind. It’s a fluid concept but one that has picked up advocates in the Muslim world over the past few years. Kazakhstan though, has been a bit slow off the mark.
Although nominally a secular country, most people in Kazakhstan are Muslim and it has a fairly developed banking sector in Almaty.
Last year, the Kazakhstan Development Bank issued a $75.5m Islamic bond in Malaysia, which has become something of a centre for Islamic finance.
That, though, appears to have been just the start.
Now Asset Issekeshev, the Kazakh minister for new technology, has said Kazakhstan wants to join the International Islamic Financial Market (IIFM), a global watchdog for Islamic finance.
Yerlan Baidaulet, a Kazakh board member at Jeddah-based bank Islamic Development Bank (IDB), went further though. He said now that Kazakhstan had a new head of its Central Bank, Islamic finance would really take off.
Mr Baidaulet told Reuters at the conference that IDB was introducing an Islamic bank and a leasing company in Kazakhstan next year.
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(News report from Issue No. 159, published on Nov. 6 2013)
NOV. 4 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The volume of cashless transactions in Kazakhstan increased by 25% in the year to the end of September, the Kazakh Central Bank said. This shows that Kazakh consumers are becoming more sophisticated and comfortable with using debit and credit cards. Cashless transactions account for roughly 15% of all purchases.
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(News report from Issue No. 159, published on Nov. 6 2013)
OCT. 30 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyzstan plans to sell a 51% stake in RSK Bank, the largest state-owned bank, by 2017, media quoted the IMF representative in Bishkek, Koba Gvenetadze, as saying. Over the past three years, Kyrgyzstan has tried, and often failed, to sell off various state assets. Investors are wary of instability.
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(News report from Issue No. 158, published on Oct. 30 2013)
OCT. 10 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Bulat Utemuratov, a confident of Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev, signed a preliminary agreement to buy Temirbank and Alliance Bank from the Kazakh government. The Kazakh government bailed out the banks during the 2009 global financial crisis. It owns 67% of Alliance Bank and 79.9% of Temirbank.
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(News report from Issue No. 156, published on Oct. 16 2013)
SEPT. 25 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The International Bank of Azerbaijan (IBA), half owned by the Azerbaijani government, released a new debit card with an in-built compass pointing to Mecca so that Muslims know which direction to pray. The new card may be a bit of a gimmick but Azerbaijan has been strengthening Islamic aspects of its banking system.
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(News report from Issue No. 154, published on Oct. 2 2013)
SEPT. 20 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — DemirBank, one of Azerbaijan’s biggest banks, estimated its loan portfolio would grow by 16% by the end of 2014, Trend news agency reported quoting the bank’s deputy chairman Rauf Akhundov. Mr Akhundov’s assessment is another sign that Azerbaijan’s economy has recovered from the 2008/9 global financial crisis.
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(News report from Issue No. 153, published on Sept. 25 2013)
SEPT. 6 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — A drop in savings held in Kazakh tenge in July showed people were losing confidence in Kazakhstan’s currency, the respected kapital.kz said. Central Bank data showed 350b tenge was withdrawn from bank accounts in July, reducing the proportion of savings held in tenge to about 61%, down from 66%.
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(News report from Issue No. 151, published on Sept. 11 2013)
