Kazakhstan National Fund
What Is the Kazakhstan National Fund?
The Kazakhstan National Fund is a sovereign wealth fund for Kazakhstan that is worked by the National Bank of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
Figuring out the Kazakhstan National Fund
The Kazakhstan National Fund was laid out in 2000, essentially to act as a stabilization fund to reduce the impact that volatility in oil, gas, and mineral prices have on the Republic of Kazakhstan.
The Kazakhstan National Fund is financed from surplus incomes acquired from taxes on the development of oil, gas and mineral reserves. The Kazakhstan National Bank records assets for the fund at $59.8 billion as of January 2021. Some $123.6 billion of that total was in gold. The fund has no website and issues no public reports on its activities. The Kazakhstan National Fund is a cryptic organization, and little data can be found with respect to its governance, holdings or investment strategies.
Kazakhstan National Fund's Assets Frozen
In October 2017, Bank of New York Mellon (BNY), following a Belgian court order, froze $22.6 billion in assets held by Kazakhstan's National Fund as part of a fight in court between the government and a Moldovan investor. Reuters reported that the freeze was associated with years-long political infighting in the country and the possibility of corruption associated with the Fund.
In January 2018, a Dutch court upset the freeze yet with several surprises, and in April 2020 a British court, too, said something regarding the case yet didn't grant broad relief to the Kazakh government seeking to eliminate those concessions ordered by the Dutch court. They deferred that decision to the original Belgian court, which heard the case in December of 2020 yet presently can't seem to arrive at a decision as of February 2021.
In question among these debates are whether sovereign wealth funds are investment arms of governments or independent institutional investors. These sorts of funds, of which Norway's is the biggest at more than $1 trillion, hold more than $7 trillion worth of wealth spread all around the globe. Thus, the ultimate decision on this case is closely watched by governments around the world.
Features
- The Kazakhstan National Fund was laid out in 2000, essentially to act as a stabilization fund to reduce the impact that volatility in oil, gas, and mineral prices have on the Republic of Kazakhstan.
- The Kazakhstan National Fund is financed from surplus incomes acquired from taxes on the development of oil, gas, and mineral reserves.
- The Kazakhstan National Fund is a sovereign wealth fund for Kazakhstan that is worked by the National Bank of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
