When Grigory Marchenko left Halyk Bank, one of the country's top four banks, to return to his previous role as central bank governor, only the timing came as a surprise to his successor Umut Shayakhmetova. He was a much-admired governor at the National Bank of Kazakhstan (NBK) until he moved to Halyk in January 2005, and the possibility that he would resume duties as the country's monetary policy supremo to help tackle the financial crisis had been mooted since the credit crunch began in mid-2007.
"But I am also surprised that Halyk decided to take a risk and appoint a woman as head of the bank, it is not so common in Kazakhstan," jokes Ms Shayakhmetova. This is undoubtedly modest - in addition to serving as Mr Marchenko's deputy for the past four years, she was previously the deputy-head of ABN Amro's operations in Kazakhstan.