National Bank of Kazakhstan wants to change the banking law

/IRBIS, March 1, 00/ - REUTERS informs, with the reference to the head of the bank Grigorii Marchenko, that the National Bank of Kazakhstan initiated changes and amendments to the banking law to ensure full banking privacy. Marchenko said to the deputies of the Majilis (one of houses of the parliament) that additions, changes and amendments which are currently made would ensure 100% protection of accounts of private persons. He also said the matter on protection of accounts of legal entities would be sent to the parliament later. The term banking privacy existed from 1995, said the head of the bank, but the laws adopted later regarding customs and law enforcement agencies had made this term meaningless. There are two points to emphasize, said Marchenko. The first is the privacy of bank deposits of the population itself, and the second is the safety of funds in accounts. People prefer to keep their money at home as imperfect laws allow tax and law enforcement agencies to collect information on the accounts of private persons in commercial banks and the amounts of money in them. Also, the population is afraid of the safety of their deposits in case the bank goes bankrupt. Marchenko believes the bank deposits insurance fund became the solution to this situation. This fund began to function from February 16, 2000. In previous four months, October, November, December and January to be exact, deposits of the population increased 40%, or $120 mln, said the head of the bank. He mentioned $1.5 bln cash is in hands of the population. This is when the monetary mass equaled KZT272 bln as of January 1, 2000, of which KZT103-105 bln was cash.