Kazakh banks hit the capital buffers
In January Grigory Marchenko became the CEO of Halyk Bank, the successor of the Kazakh part of the old Soviet savings bank, Sberbank. Kazakhstan's former central bank governor spoke to Euromoney's Christopher Pala about his goals and challenges as head of the venerable institution.
What are Halyk's strengths?
Halyk Bank is number three by assets but we are number one in household deposits, in payment cards, where we have 70% of the market, and in mortgage lending. We have the largest pension fund in the country – bigger than the state one – with 25% of the market. We have an insurance company and leasing subsidiary that are either first or second.
Last year we had our best year ever. Our assets grew by 57% to $3.1 billion. Our capital grew by 60% to $290 million, and net profits before audit were $63 million.
What are your goals?
First, we should really develop more as a financial group, not only as a bank. We want to develop all these entities – pensions, insurance, leasing, brokerage – as a group and to sell the whole range of financial services through our bank network.