Kazakhstan to create its own rating agency, discussing partnership with S&P, Moody's, Fitch

ASTANA. April 15 (Interfax) - Kazakhstan plans to create its own rating agency, and one of the international big three rating agencies may be among its shareholders, the chairperson of the Kazakh Agency for Regulation and Development of the Financial Market (ARDFM) Madina Abylkassymova said.

"The bill introduces an institutional market model providing for three types of credit rating agencies. First, the creation of a Kazakh rating agency as an independent institution for national rating assessment," Abylkassymova said while presenting the bill on rating activities at a plenary session of the lower house of the Kazakh parliament.

It is envisaged that the shareholders of the Kazakh rating agency will be the National Bank of Kazakhstan, an international rating agency, and financial organizations, she said.

"First of all, we expect that the main anchor shareholder will be the National Bank. This is necessary to form a sustainable institution for which investor confidence is important. We also need an international methodology, and in this regard, an international rating agency is being considered as the second shareholder as a participant," Abylkassymova said.

The National Bank is currently negotiating with the big three international rating agencies (S&P Global Ratings, Moody's and Fitch Ratings), as well as with other foreign rating agencies, in order to use their methodology and for them to directly participate in the creation of the Kazakh rating agency, she said.

Requirements for the minimum size of charter and equity capital will be established for the future rating agency - around 10 billion tenge, which corresponds to the practice of national rating agencies in other countries, she said.

Plans to create a credit agency in Kazakhstan first emerged in 2023.

The official exchange rate on April 15 is 476.97 tenge/$1.