The volume of pension savings transferred from Kazakhstan's Unified Accumulative Pension Fund (UAPF) to asset management companies (AMCs) reached 58.3 billion tenge in September — 5.1 times more than a month earlier, the website infohub.kz reports.
The calculations, based on pension fund data, were made by the First Credit Bureau.
"Along with the volume, the number of transfers also rose significantly — 3.1 times compared with August, to 39,800. The number of recipients, in turn, tripled to 36,700 people. Thus, there was an average of 1.1 transfers per recipient (a contributor may allocate funds in different proportions among several managers)," the analysts calculated.
Both the volume and the number of transfers set records dating back to January 2021 — the entire period since the rule allowing pension money to be transferred to AMCs came into force. The current surges are not the first in recent times: the previous sharp rise came in June, after which the figures held at roughly the same level for another two months.
"It is obvious that the recent legislative changes have spurred the revival in transfers. On September 7, UAPF contributors were allowed to hand over all their pension savings to private companies. Shortly before that, on June 6, the sufficiency thresholds for withdrawing funds for housing and medical treatment were raised by 79% and more at once. As a result, transferring savings to an AMC has remained virtually the only available tool for managing pension money," the bureau stressed.
Recall that new rules on managing pension savings took effect in Kazakhstan in September. In particular, citizens can now transfer 100% of their pension funds to a private company.