President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has removed Galymzhan Pirmatov from the position of chairman of the National Bank, according to the president’s press service.
«Galymzhan Pirmatov has been dismissed from the position of the chairman of the National Bank by the president’s edict,» the press service said in a statement.
What do we know about Pirmatov? The ex-chairman of the National Bank was born in 1972 in the Shymkent region of Kazakhstan. In 1993, he graduated from Novosibirsk State University where he studied mathematics. In 1995, he graduated from the Kazakhstan Institute of Management, Economics, and Forecasting and Atkinson Graduate School of Management, Willamette University (MBA) in 2001.
Throughout his career, he worked as deputy minister of the economy and budget planning; as first deputy head of the BTA Bank, as deputy head of the National Bank and as chairman of the board in Kazatomprom.
He was appointed as chairman of the National Bank in February 2022.
What did Tokayev say about the National Bank’s work? During his address to the nation, President Tokayev said that the net profit of commercial banks was $3.2 billion last year (more than $2 billion over the first six months of this year).
«This high rate of profitability is the result of the high base rate that the National Bank uses as a countermeasure against inflation rather than the result of banks’ work,» he underlined.
According to the president, the cabinet and the parliament should find «a fairer way to distribute this profit.»
Tokayev also said that it is necessary to motivate banks to play a more active role in corporate crediting and focus their efforts on facilitating entrepreneurs in their endeavors. The president also believes that providing loans to businesses should have a more beneficial prudential and fiscal regulation compared to other types of banking activities.
In addition, the head of the state wants more robust actions in order to involve $4.9 billion of «frozen assets» in the national economy. In this regard, the president has ordered the cabinet to establish a transparent digital platform where businesses will be able to purchase those assets and bring them back to the economy.
