The Unified Accumulative Pension Fund (UAPF) is reducing commission fees on pension assets.

One of the areas of focus of the Social Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan, which comes into force on July 1, 2023, is the further improvement of the pension system, which includes the implementation of a number of innovations.

The changes also affect the amount of the ENPF commission fee on pension assets, which will decrease from 0.01 to 0.008 percent per month effective July 1, 2023. However, it cannot exceed the amount determined as the product of 0.04 times the monthly calculation indicator established by the law on the republican budget and in effect as of January 1 of the relevant financial year, and the number of individual pension accounts of contributors (recipients) with pension savings, based on mandatory pension contributions, opened in the ENPF as of the first day of the relevant calendar month.

As a reminder, the UAPF commission fee was previously revised in 2021. Since then, the UAPF commission has been no more than 0.01% of pension assets. Furthermore, starting in 2021, the ENPF no longer charges a commission on investment income. This is charged only by pension asset managers: the National Bank of the Republic of Kazakhstan (NBRK, no more than 2% of investment income) and investment portfolio managers (no more than 7.5% of investment income). In 2023, the NBRK commission on investment income was 1.5%, and in 2022, 1.8%.

It should be noted that when the UAPF was established, it was legally stipulated that the commission for the UAPF should not exceed 7.5% of investment income and 0.025% per month of pension assets. This is half the amount received by private NPFs. At the same time, the UAPF, in conjunction with the National Bank of the Republic of Kazakhstan, has worked annually to reduce commission fees and optimize fund expenses. For example, in 2016-2017, the commission on pension assets was 0.0225%, in 2018 and 2019 it was 0.015%, and in 2020 it was 0.011%.

Thus, since the ENPF's inception in 2014, commission fees on pension assets have been reduced by 68%.

The ENPF was established on August 22, 2013, on the basis of JSC UAPF. The founder and shareholder of the UAPF is the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan, represented by the State Property and Privatization Committee of the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The National Bank of the Republic of Kazakhstan exercises trust management of the UAPF's pension assets. Effective January 1, 2016, the responsibility for developing proposals to improve the efficiency of pension asset management was transferred to the National Fund Management Council. In accordance with pension legislation, the UAPF collects mandatory pension contributions, mandatory professional pension contributions, voluntary pension contributions, makes pension payments, maintains individual records of pension savings and payments, and provides contributors (recipients) with information on the status of their pension savings (more information at www.enpf.kz).