Baku, Azerbaijan, June 28
Trend:
Kazakhstan needs to solve problems with three banks, namely, Qazaq Banki, Delta Bank and Bank RBK, Mark Horton, chief of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission for Kazakhstan, deputy director of the Middle East and Central Asia Department at the IMF, said at a press conference, Kazakh media reported.
He also noted that the banking sector of Kazakhstan passed the most dangerous zone.
He said that the government has taken a number of correct steps to stabilize the situation in the banking sector of Kazakhstan.
In his opinion, during the global economic crisis of 2008-2009, Kazakh government agencies provided the necessary financial assistance to ensure the stabilization of the financial sector, so the banking sector probably passed the most dangerous level.
However, there are problems with smaller second-tier banks, such as Qazaq Banki, Delta Bank, and larger second-tier banks, such as Bank RBK, he noted, adding that Kazakhstan continues to support them with liquidity, where necessary.
He noted that state agencies treat banks that continue to experience difficulties with caution. Therefore, the Kazakh Parliament received amendments and additions expanding the powers of the National Bank of Kazakhstan to work with problem loans, write off, provide capital, where necessary, he said.
Banks have problems with providing loans to related parties, so such operations will be subject to greater supervision in the future and this should also have an effect in strengthening the banking sector, he noted.
In addition, he drew attention to the fact that in 2018, the lending institution began to improve. In his speech, he focused on household lending, which makes it possible to restore the sector at a fairly good pace.
There is also interest in providing more financial support to representatives of small and medium-sized enterprises and the corporate sector, so it seems that with the support measures that were submitted with regulatory changes regarding the powers of the National Bank of Kazakhstan, the banking sector should be ready to act as a leader in restoring Kazakhstan’s economic development, he said.