On 6 February 2013 K. Kelimbetov, a Deputy Prime Minister of Kazakhstan, reported that as part of the President’s instructions, given at the enlarged meeting of the government of Kazakhstan on 23 January 2013 , on the transfer of individual retirement accounts of depositors (recipients) APF into a single pension fund, it is proposed to establish UNPF based on SAPF. 100 % of its shares are currently owned by the National Bank.
UNPF owner will be the RoK government. UNPF creation does not change the principles of an accumulative pension system: UNPF will save the system of individual pension savings accounts.
The state guarantee will be maintained for all types of compulsory pension contributions. Pension savings of citizens will be transferred in full.
UNPF creation is not the nationalization of pension savings: pension funds remain the property of citizens.
Retirement savings will be stored in the National Bank, which is the custodian bank.
UNPF pension assets will be managed by the National Bank in accordance with the investment strategy approved by the Board on the management of pension assets UNPF. Members of the Board will be approved by the President of Kazakhstan.
Investment of pension assets of UNPF will be implemented based on principles of diversification, conservation and a moderate level of profitability.
At that, acting APF will be able to continue its activities as investment portfolio managers (legally be entitled to exchange licenses on pension asset management for license to manage investment portfolio) or as voluntary pension fund.
Implementation of above measures would require amendments to 8 codes and 22 laws of the RoK, which will be adopted in the coming months. All citizens’ pension savings should be consolidated into UNPF before 1 July 2013.
