The National Bank of Kazakhstan plans to change its approach to investing citizens' pension savings by introducing age-based portfolios. This was announced by Nurlan Tursynkhanov, Deputy Chairman of the Agency for Regulation and Development of the Financial Market (ARDFM), at a roundtable discussing the Capital Market Development Program of Kazakhstan until 2030, as reported by infohub.kz.
Currently, the regulator invests ENPF funds according to a single strategy for all contributors. The new model involves investing based on a person's life cycle. For young citizens, portfolios will be formed with a higher share of stocks and growth instruments, and as they approach retirement age, assets will gradually be shifted into more conservative and liquid financial instruments.
This approach is already partially applied by private management companies, which can offer portfolios with different risk levels depending on the client's age. However, most of them choose a conservative strategy suitable for everyone.
The reform of pension assets will be part of a program to create sustainable domestic demand for long-term securities. The new initiative aims to improve the efficiency of managing ENPF funds, expand their participation in financing the capital market, and develop collective investments.
The changes are being prepared against the backdrop of weak returns on pension savings managed by the National Bank. According to ENPF data, from the beginning of 2026 to August 1, the return on assets managed by the National Bank was 4.4%. Over the same period, all private managers except Tansar Capital, which has been operating since the first half of 2026, showed higher nominal returns.