President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev called on banks to become more actively involved in implementing key state programmes during an expanded government meeting.
According to Kapital.kz, the head of state reminded banks of the state support they received several years ago.
"From 2017 to 2020, a number of large banks received state support, including from the National Fund, for a period of 15 years, under the terms of joint liability of their shareholders," said Tokayev.
The President noted that some banks have already covered all their losses but continue to hold onto state funds.
"The government and the National Bank are instructed to make a decision. I want to emphasise on this issue: banks are by no means enemies of the government, and even less so of the people, but there must be a fair partnership based on dialogue. Once you were helped, now you reciprocate," said Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.
The head of state stressed that the resources of second-tier banks should be used to implement government programmes for the construction and modernisation of major infrastructure projects.
"It is necessary to gradually redirect state-allocated funds towards subsidising interest rates on loans. This will increase the coverage of financing several times over and usefully engage bank liquidity in economic circulation," the statement reads.
In turn, the publication Nege.kz writes, citing its own source, that following the President's speech, the owner of Bank RBK JSC, Vladimir Kim, and the owner of Bank CenterCredit JSC, Bakhtiyar Baiseitov, discussed the possibility of partially returning the state aid.
It is noted that in 2017, Bank RBK, Bank CenterCredit, Eurasian Bank, Nurbank, ATF Bank and Tsesna (Jusan Bank) received 700 billion tenge in aid from the state. These funds were given to the banks for 15 years.