Kazakhstan National Fund

What it is

The Kazakhstan National Fund is a sovereign wealth fund managed by the National Bank of the Republic of Kazakhstan. It was created to manage and preserve revenue from the country’s natural-resource sector.

Purpose and funding

• Established in 2000 as a stabilization and savings vehicle.
• Financed primarily by surplus revenues from taxes and charges on oil, gas, and mineral extraction.
• Intended to smooth government revenue fluctuations driven by volatile commodity prices and to preserve wealth for future generations.

Size and transparency

• The National Bank reported the fund’s assets at roughly $59.8 billion (reported figure as of early 2021).
• The fund issues no regular public reports and has no dedicated public-facing website. Governance, detailed holdings, and investment strategies are not publicly disclosed, making the fund relatively opaque.

Legal disputes and international implications

• In 2017, Bank of New York Mellon froze approximately $22.6 billion in assets held for the fund following a Belgian court order tied to a legal claim by a Moldovan investor. Reports linked the dispute to domestic political infighting and allegations of corruption.
• Subsequent rulings in the Netherlands and the U.K. modified or reviewed parts of the freeze, and the Belgian courts continued to address the case. As a result, parts of the fund’s assets have been subject to international legal proceedings.
• The case raised broader questions about whether sovereign wealth funds should be treated as extensions of state power or as independent institutional investors—an issue of interest to governments and financial institutions worldwide.

Context

• Sovereign wealth funds manage a large portion of global state-owned investments (the largest, Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global, exceeds $1 trillion).
• Together, sovereign wealth funds hold trillions of dollars in assets and are significant players in global capital markets.

Key takeaways

• The Kazakhstan National Fund is a resource-backed sovereign wealth fund created to stabilize and conserve commodity revenues.
• Its funding comes mainly from oil, gas, and mineral-related surpluses.
• The fund is notably opaque, with limited public disclosure of holdings or strategy.
• Legal actions in multiple jurisdictions have frozen or challenged portions of its assets, highlighting governance and sovereign-immunity issues that have implications beyond Kazakhstan.