Kazakh Development Bank Sees Shortage of Qualified Personnel

Kazakhstan has a “considerable shortage of adequately qualified personnel” in its financial sector, according to the central Asian country’s development bank.

The shortfall is particularly evident in such areas as risk management and brokerage services, the Development Bank of Kazakhstan said in a prospectus published on the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange website today.

“If the shortage of adequately qualified personnel persists,” the Development Bank of Kazakhstan’s “ability to offer the desired range and volume of services and monitor and maintain the quality of its assets may be affected, which may, in turn, affect” its “business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects,” the lender said.

“In addition, a shortage of adequately qualified personnel may force” the bank “to offer additional financial and other incentives to retain existing personnel and recruit additional personnel, which would increase operating expenses,” according to the statement.

Kazakhstan, central Asia’s biggest energy producer, tapped its oil fund for $10 billion to support banks and companies after credit markets froze and a property bubble burst in 2008. BTA Bank, the biggest lender at the time, Alliance Bank and Temirbank agreed with creditors to discount and extend payments on about $20 billion of debt after they defaulted the following year.

The Development Bank of Kazakhstan picked the Malaysian units of HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA), Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc (RBS) and JSC Halyk Finance to sell as much as 1.5 billion Malaysian ringgit ($469 million) Islamic bonds in the Southeast Asian nation.

The state-owned lender didn’t immediately reply to an e- mailed request for comment.

To contact the reporter on this story: Nariman Gizitdinov in Almaty at ngizitdinov@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephen Voss at sev@bloomberg.net