OREANDA-NEWS. On January 25, 2007 Joint Stock Company ‘Halyk Savings Bank of Kazakhstan’ (Halyk Bank) (LSE: HSBK) provided an update on its business activities, reported the press-centre of Halyk Savings Bank.

1. Strategy
The Board of Directors of Halyk Bank in November 2007 approved an update and continuation of its Group Strategy until 2010.

Halyk Bank will continue to grow as a Regional Financial Services Group focusing on corporate,
SME and retail banking. The Group Strategy will also continue to be aligned with the Group Values of customer orientation, reliability, leadership, social responsibility, fairness, and professionalism.

Furthermore, Halyk Bank will continue to increase shareholder value through long term sustainable growth, driven by controlled expansion across the full range of financial services.

The full outline of the Halyk Group Strategy for 2008-2010 is available on Halyk Bank’s web-site at: http://eng.halykbank.kz/bank/halyk_group_strategy_for_2008_2010

2. Registration of new foreign subsidiaries of Halyk Bank
On 7 December 2007 Halyk Bank received authorisation from the Agency of Kazakhstan on Regulation and Supervision of Financial Markets and Financial Organisations (the ‘FMSA’) to establish subsidiary banks in Georgia and Mongolia as well as a subsidiary non-banking financial organisation in Mongolia.

In view of this, in January 2008 Halyk Bank registered a new legal entity in Georgia entitled ‘JSC Halyk Bank Georgia’ and submitted an application for a banking licence to the National Bank of Georgia.

In December 2007 Halyk Bank registered two legal entities in Mongolia: ‘Halyk Astana Dornod LLC’ and ‘Halyk Dornod LLC’. ‘Halyk Astana Dornod LLC’ will apply to the Financial Regulatory Commission of Mongolia with the purpose of obtaining a non-banking financial organisation licence in February 2008. ‘Halyk Dornod LLC’ is expected to apply to the Bank of Mongolia for a banking licence in February 2008.

3. Change of name of Russian subsidiary
Halyk Bank announces the change in name of its banking subsidiary in Russia ‘JSC Bank Khlebny’ to the ‘Open Joint Stock Company NBK-Bank’ (NBK-Bank). The Regional Division of the Central Bank of Russian Federation in Chelyabinsk confirmed the name change for JSC Bank Khlebny in the state register of legal entities on the 20th December 2007.

Furthermore, Halyk Bank and NBK-Bank confirm the validity of all contracts concluded by JSC Bank Khlebny. The change in name of the bank does not entail any changes in either the legal form or the bank details of NBK-Bank.