Kazakhstan's National Bank intends to gradually scale back its presence in the capital market and eventually transfer pension asset management functions to the Unified Accumulative Pension Fund (UAPF). Yelena Bakhmutova, chair of the Association of Financiers of Kazakhstan (AFK), made the announcement on the UAPF podcast "Dialogues on the Pension System," according to infohub.kz.
According to the AFK head, the transfer of investment strategy development and partial asset management to the fund will only become possible in the longer term. To carry out the initiative, the UAPF will need time to build up the necessary qualifications and deep investment expertise.
"Since the National Bank itself agrees that its presence in the capital market is excessive and that it should gradually withdraw, then over time the transfer — or, let's say, the development of investment strategy proposals and partial management — may, in the longer term, be handed over to the Unified Accumulative Pension Fund. Well, naturally, that takes time, and it requires qualifications that need to be accumulated there," Bakhmutova explained.
Beyond the staffing issue, the reform will require eliminating potential conflicts of interest within the fund itself, the AFK head noted. According to her, the UAPF must retain its status as a trusted record-keeping organization and serve as a one-stop shop where contributors receive full information about their savings.
"And the National Bank's functions will gradually, as it were, diminish in this matter. Well, that probably requires a considerably longer period of time," Bakhmutova concluded.
Recall that on September 7, 2026, amendments to the Social Code came into force in Kazakhstan allowing private investment portfolio managers (IPMs) to be handed up to 100% of savings accumulated from mandatory, mandatory occupational and voluntary pension contributions. Previously, the threshold was only up to 50%.
Earlier, Kursiv wrote that some contributors encountered rejections when trying to transfer 100% of their savings to an IPM because of a technical system error.