When the state holding and investment fund Samruk-Kazyna began moves to take majority stakes in BTA Bank and Alliance Bank in February 2009, Kazakhstan's financial crisis had entered a new phase. In the same week, Grigoriy Marchenko, reappointed governor of the National Bank of Kazakhstan (NBK) after a four-year absence, devalued the Kazakh tenge exchange rate about 18% against the dollar. The outgoing NBK governor, Anvar Saidenov, moved to BTA first as an adviser to, then as a replacement for, CEO Roman Solodchenko.
In practice, the exchange rate position of most major banks was neutral - their external borrowings were matched by loans made to clients in foreign currencies, equivalent to about half their total loan portfolios. Unfortunately, the same could not be said for retail customers earning their wages in tenge. And while rental on commercial property is paid in dollars, the global credit squeeze deprived many construction and development companies of the funds to finish their projects.
