Kazakhstan’s BTA Bank Merges Pension Funds to Boost Market Share

BTA Bank, the Kazakh lender that defaulted in 2009, said it will merge two pension funds and a company managing pension assets to create the country’s second-largest endowment.

The merged funds will have a 20 percent market share with a combined 1.9 million depositors, the Almaty-based lender said today in an e-mailed statement. The bank had controlling stakes in the UlarUmit and BTA Kazakhstan funds and in pension asset manager Zhetisy, Asel Tynyshbekova, BTA’s spokeswoman, said by phone. The lender will control the new entity, called UlarUmit, following the merger, she said.