Kazakhstan’s Senate has approved amendments that would allow citizens to transfer up to 100% of their pension savings to private asset management companies for trust management. Under current rules, contributors may transfer no more than 50% of their pension assets to private managers.
The changes were announced by MP Askhat Aimagambetov on his Telegram channel.
If the bill is signed into law, Kazakhstanis will be able to choose whether to keep their pension savings under the management of the National Bank of Kazakhstan or transfer all of their assets to licensed private investment managers.
More investment choices
Most of Kazakhstan’s pension savings are held in the Unified Accumulative Pension Fund (UAPF) and managed by the National Bank.
According to Aimagambetov, the central bank has managed pension funds effectively, but a significant share of the assets is invested in government securities and financing for state programs. While those investments offer stability, they do not always generate the highest returns.
The lawmaker said the amendments would give citizens greater flexibility to choose investment strategies based on their individual risk tolerance. Investors would be able to decide how much of their pension savings to allocate to higher-risk, moderate or conservative investment instruments.
Competition among private managers
The authors of the amendments also expect increased competition among private asset management companies to encourage stronger investment performance and more efficient management of pension assets.
Aimagambetov stressed that private managers would remain responsible for safeguarding pension savings. Their activities would continue to be supervised by the National Bank and the Agency for Regulation and Development of the Financial Market.
«Who benefits from this? First and foremost, the citizens themselves. If the market is growing, private strategies can generate much higher returns than conservative government instruments. You take responsibility for your future into your own hands instead of relying on the average outcome,» he wrote.
Kursiv.media previously reported that Kazakhstanis continue to lose the real value of their pension savings despite the recovery in investment returns at the UAPF.
According to official data, only a small number of private asset managers consistently generate investment returns that exceed inflation, although their performance often surpasses that of the National Bank.
