Over the first eight months of 2026, every private manager of Kazakh citizens' pension assets delivered returns above accumulated inflation of 6.37%. The National Bank was the only holder whose pension savings lost value in real terms, infohub.kz reports.

Kazakh citizens' pension assets are not simply held in the Unified Accumulative Pension Fund (UAPF); they are invested in various financial instruments to generate investment income and shield them from inflation.

As of September 1, the National Bank managed 94.66% of Kazakhs' pension assets, or 26.95 trillion tenge. Since the start of the year, 1.10 trillion tenge in investment income from the main manager has been credited to UAPF contributors' accounts. Returns stood at 4.2%. With inflation over the eight months at 6.37%, pension savings lost 2.17% in real terms.

The UAPF itself explained that the decline in investment income since the start of the year was driven by a negative revaluation of foreign-currency assets as the tenge strengthened.

Centras Securities topped the returns table, managing a portfolio of 22.6 billion tenge. Its pension assets returned 12.18% over the eight months, or 6.43% in real terms. It credited 1.2 billion tenge to contributors' accounts.

It was followed by Halyk Finance, which holds the largest portfolio among private managers at 77.6 billion tenge. The company posted a return of 9.06%, or 2.69% adjusted for inflation. It credited 5.8 billion tenge to contributors' accounts.

Overall, pension asset managers' returns were as follows: Centras Securities — 12.18% (6.43% adjusted for inflation); Halyk Finance — 9.06% (+2.69% in real terms); Alatau City Invest — 8.25% (1.88%) with a portfolio of 24 billion tenge; BCC Invest — 8.09% (1.72%) with a portfolio of 19.6 billion tenge; Halyk Global Markets — 7.55% (1.18%) managing 6.6 billion tenge; Tansar Capital — 2.43% since April, with a portfolio of 743.66 million tenge.

Notably, over the past 3.5 years, Centras Securities has been the top performer among pension asset managers, with a return of 64.07% and outperformance of inflation by 21.7 percentage points. The National Bank posted a return of 45.51%, beating inflation by just 3.11 percentage points.