Kazakh Bank Paid $430 Million in Dividends Following Bailout
- Payouts made after a $2.3 billion rescue ended in 2019
- Rescued banks are often banned from paying dividends for years
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The Kazakh bank that received one of the country’s biggest bailout packages in recent years has paid out about $430 million in dividends, including from profits booked before the rescue.
First Heartland Jusan Bank, known as Tsesnabank before it was bought by a fund set up by leader-for-life Nursultan Nazarbayev, resumed payouts in 2020, regulatory filings show. In 2018 and the start of 2019, Tsesnabank received more than 1 trillion tenge ($2.3 billion) in state funds and was allowed to convert 460 billion tenge of deposits from state-owned companies into low-yield bonds.