DUSHANBE, June 4, Asia-Plus – The National Bank of Tajikistan is considering proposal of KazKommertsBank, Kazakhstan’s largest correspondent bank, to open its branch in Tajikistan, Asia-Plus has learned from Touraqul Haqnazarov, the head of the NBT department for banking supervision and licensing.
According to him, the KazKommertzBonk’s board of directors has made such a decision following an official address by President Rahmon to a joint session of both chambers of the Tajik parliament on April 30, when he announced that all banks could freely enter and operate in Tajikistan.
The Tajik central bank official noted that establishing its branch in Tajikistan, KazKommertzBank will able to offer to offer an assortment of products and services in Tajikistan. In particular, they plan to offer medium-sized and large Tajik companies trade and project financing, financing of investment projects, assets management, short-term crediting and other bank services.
According to him, the NBOT will consider KazKommertzBank’s application for establishment of its branch in Tajikistan during two months.
We will recall the KazKommertzBank opened its representative office in Dushanbe on December 1, 2006. KazaKommertzBank’s local office in Dushanbe is engaged in studying banking environment in Tajikistan, collecting statistical data, as well as arranging meetings of bank officials of the two countries in case of necessity.
Established in 1990, KazKommertsBank headquarters in Almaty is the first private financial institute in Kazakhstan, and is fourth among CIS banks in terms of assets, loan portfolio and profit. The banks assets amount to 1.95 trillions tenge (equivalent to US $8.9 billion). The loan portfolio accounts for some 60 percent of this amount (5.4 billion U.S. dollars). In 2005, the bank’s profit was US$154.7 million. As of July 1 2006, the bank had 22 branches and 69 offices in Kazakhstan. The bank also has affiliates in Kyrgyzstan (KazKommertsBank Kyrgyzstan) and Russia (Moskomertsbank).
