Reuters: US Dollar Report: PROFILE-Kazakhstan Central Bank Governor Grigory Marchenko

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PROFILE-Kazakhstan Central Bank Governor Grigory Marchenko Apr 25th 2012, 09:17 Wed Apr 25, 2012 5:17am EDT Position: Chairman of the National Bank of Kazakhstan Incumbent: Grigory Marchenko Date of Birth: Dec. 26, 1959 Term: Appointed January 2009. In his second term, having previously chaired the central bank from October 1999 until January 2004. Tenure determined by the president. Key facts: - Marchenko graduated in 1984 as an economist from the prestigious Moscow State Institute of International Relations and is widely recognised as one of the most astute and experienced financial officials in Kazakhstan, having switched between the private and public sectors throughout his career. - Marchenko is a reformer largely responsible for shaping Kazakhstan's present-day banking and pension systems. He regularly quoted Albert Einstein - "the most powerful force in the universe is compound interest" - as his main argument ahead of the launch of pension reforms to lure Kazakh employees to set aside part of their earnings in funds of their choice. - A quick-witted intellectual, his ideas on reform were often at odds with other senior Kazakh officials in the 1990s. He chaired the National Securities Commission for a year before resigning in protest against delays in developing his brainchild, the Kazakhstan stock market. He then became head of Deutsche Bank Securities in Kazakhstan. - Marchenko, fluent in English, German and Spanish, was lauded for banking reforms adopted during his first term as central bank chairman. He left to become deputy prime minister in 2004 and, before returning to the central bank in 2009, was a special adviser to the president and chief executive of Halyk Bank, the national savings bank. - The start of Marchenko's two tenures as central bank chairman are closely associated with currency devaluations. In 1999, he took over shortly after the tenge shed a third of its value following financial collapse in neighbouring Russia. A decade later, within two weeks of his return, Kazakhstan had devalued the tenge by 18 percent in response to the global financial crisis and a weaker rouble. - Sarcastic and even vitriolic at times, Marchenko is feared by some local media representatives as a sharp-tongued critic of shallow reporting on banking and macroeconomic news. In September 2001, he shaved off his trademark grey beard, keeping a promise that he would sacrifice his whiskers when private deposits in Kazakh banks topped $1 billion. The beard has since grown back. Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

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