At a government meeting, the Agency for Regulation and Development of the Financial Market of the Republic of Kazakhstan outlined measures to expand lending to the real economy, focusing on easing collateral constraints, widening guarantee support for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and scaling up syndicated lending for large investment projects. The agency is working on establishing an SME Loan Guarantee Fund and has submitted related legislative amendments to the Government. To improve collateral availability, collateral valuation parameters were eased for certain asset types, including raising liquidity coefficients for passenger vehicles to 60% from 50% and for equipment to 55% from 40%, and increasing recognised cash flow for public-private partnership and offtake agreements to 50% from 0%. Legislative amendments were also adopted to simplify the sale process for collateral in the form of subsoil use rights and temporary land use rights. On guarantees, 5% of entrepreneurs’ outstanding loans totalling KZT 607bn are currently covered by Damu Fund guarantees; the proposed new fund would be financed through both state participation and annual bank contributions and would cover up to 85% of SME loans up to KZT 3.5bn, alongside the planned introduction of a reduced 20% risk weighting for SME loans backed by a Damu Fund guarantee. For syndicated lending, legislative amendments adopted last year expanded syndicate participation to non-resident banks and enabled syndicated loan agreements to be concluded under principles of international law. A syndicated lending project office has been set up at the Development Bank of Kazakhstan with participation from Baiterek, Samruk-Kazyna and banks, with an investment project pool of KZT 6.5trn and financing initiated for five projects totalling KZT 835bn via syndicated lending and co-financing.

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