Currently, five banks in Kazakhstan are holding approximately 1.5 trillion tenge in state aid on their balance sheets, which they are reluctant to repay. Although some have attempted to divide their debt into parts and have even started to repay it early, others are waiting in the wings. This situation does not involve government programs for business support or refinancing of mortgage loans. It pertains to the banks' obligations concerning deposits, bonds, and loans provided to them under favorable conditions from the budget, the National Fund, the National Bank, the Kazakhstan Stability Fund, as well as funds from the quasi-government sector. Let's delve into the details.
Unstable Financial Stability Program
Let’s begin with the Financial Stability Enhancement Program for the banking sector, which provided state support to six financial institutions through the purchase of their subordinated bonds. This was done under the condition of joint liability of the shareholders of these financial institutions. The National Bank of Kazakhstan allocated 700.5 billion tenge as part of this program from 2017 to 2020.
The largest amount, 243.7 billion tenge, went to Bank RBK, whose majority owner is Vladimir Kim . Slightly less, 150 billion tenge, was received by Eurasian Bank, which is backed by EFK, owned by Alexander Mashkevich, Patokh Shodiyev, and the Ibragimov family . Both ATFBank and Tsesnabank received 100 billion tenge each. CenterCredit Bank got 60 billion tenge, with major shareholder Bakytbek Bayseitov , while Nurbank received 46.8 billion tenge, owned by Eldar Sarsenov .
However, this support did not save some banks. For instance, ATFBank and Tsesnabank have faded into obscurity for several years, transferring their debts to new owners, or rather one — Galimzhan Yesenov . But how long will this last? More on that later.
The remaining financial institutions, as assured by the Agency for Regulation and Development of the Financial Market, are returning the allocated funds according to the terms of the agreements. However, they only provide three examples to support their claims.
The first is Jusan Bank, which became the successor to Tsesnabank in all obligations and has prematurely repurchased subordinated bonds from the National Fund "Samruk-Kazyna" for 100 billion tenge and sold ATFBank's papers to the fund for the same amount after deciding to purchase it at the end of 2020. The ARDFR also mentions Bank RBK and CenterCredit Bank, which have so far only partially returned the funds — 29.6 billion and 20 billion tenge, respectively.
The agency remained silent regarding the plans of two other financial institutions — Eurasian Bank and Nurbank, adding only that they continue to work on additional measures to further encourage banks to repay state aid early. For example, they introduced a legislative restriction on the accrual and payment of dividends by financial institutions that have debts to the government. However, this only happened in 2022. But that’s not all.
A Trillion to Save Agricultural Producers — or Tsesnabank?
Returning to the story when Tsesnabank still existed in Kazakhstan. Until February 2019, it was owned by the former head of the Administration of the first president of Kazakhstan — Adilbek Dzhaksybekov, after which it came under the ownership of First Heartland Securities (at that time the investment subsidiary of the financial holding company of the group of autonomous educational organizations "Nazarbayev University", "Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools", and "Nazarbayev Fund"). About the same time, Tsesnabank was renamed Jysan Bank and later became Jusan Bank.
Notably, between these dates, in late 2018 and early 2019, the Problem Loans Fund purchased Tsesnabank’s unprofitable portfolio from the agro-industrial complex as a key participant in the "Agrobusiness-2020" program for 1.054 trillion tenge (of which 450 billion tenge was the first tranche and 604 billion tenge was the second tranche). The basis for this was a mechanism approved by the government in 2018 and again by the National Bank, aimed at ensuring the recovery of agricultural producers and supporting the financial condition of Tsesnabank. Otherwise, the latter could simply fail to meet its obligations to depositors and others.
However, in response to a request from Forbes Kazakhstan, the ARDFR provided the following answer: "As part of the implementation of measures in 2018-2019 in accordance with the above mechanism, as well as in order to assist the process of merging two major banks — JSC "ATF Bank" and JSC "Tsesnabank" — in the context of deteriorating economic conditions related to the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, state support was provided by means of loans and the purchase of bonds of the indicated banks, as a result of which, currently, JSC "Jusan Bank" retains state support funds totaling 1 trillion tenge on its balance sheet."
Today, all this legacy has passed to the current shareholder of Jusan Bank — Galimzhan Yesenov. By the way, until 2021, he was the owner of ATFBank, until it merged with Jusan Bank. After that, Yesenov received 19.67% of the shares of the merged bank. Around the same time, the Jusan group, which includes both the bank and several other major assets, was moved to a foreign jurisdiction. In mid-June 2023, the group was successfully returned to the Kazakhstan jurisdiction. In August, the ownership rights to JSC "First Heartland Securities," which owns 78.73% of the common shares of Jusan Bank, fully transitioned to Galimzhan Yesenov. By the end of 2023, First Heartland Securities increased its stake in the bank's capital from 78.73% to 79.63%.
State Residue on the Banking Table
Thus, state support remains on the balance sheets of Kazakhstan's banks, despite the growing profitability of the sector.
The total amount of this debt reaches 1.4 trillion tenge, of which 1 trillion is owed by Jusan Bank, 213 billion tenge by Bank RBK, 150 billion tenge by Eurasian Bank, 47 billion tenge by Nurbank, and 40 billion tenge by CenterCredit Bank. All these banks are owned by businessmen from the Forbes Kazakhstan list.
Recall that in early February 2025, co-owner of Kaspi.kz Vyacheslav Kim (ranked 1st in the list of the richest businessmen in Kazakhstan in 2024) submitted an application to the ARDFR to acquire 97.5% of Jusan Bank’s shares. Now the question remains: will he be able to settle the bank's old debts or at least move this process off dead center, thereby setting an example for other shareholders?