National Bank Governor on ways current pension funds could take

Kazakhstan’s national Bank Governor Gregory Marchenko told about three alternative ways the current pension funds could take after the single pension fund is launched, a Tengrinews.kz journalist reports, citing National Bank PR Department. “The current pension fund can take one of the three possible ways. They can be transformed into asset management companies; they can be transformed into pension funds working with voluntary savings schemes; or they can wind up and exit the market”, Mr. Marchenko told a briefing. He elaborated that “for voluntary savings schemes to develop, the legislation should set tax exemptions for a part of income (up to 5% of the salary) so that people could be encouraged to turn to voluntary savings plans”. As for pension funds that will opt to be liquidated, “when pension funds were launched, investors injected their own money into assets (…) now these assets could be sold out to get the money back (…) exiting the market is a possible decision”, Mr. Marchenko said. Pension savings are to be consolidated into a single pension fund by July 1, 2013. The single pension fund will be owned by the Government, whereas the National Bank shall act as the assets manager.