OREANDA-NEWS. January 21, 2009. Joint Stock Company “Halyk Savings Bank of Kazakhstan” (the “Bank”) (LSE: HSBK) hereby informs that in accordance with part one of Article 17.5 of the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan “On Banks and Banking Activity in the Republic of Kazakhstan” (the “Law”), legal entities registered in offshore jurisdictions or legal entities which have affiliates registered in off-shore jurisdictions or individuals who are participants (shareholders) in legal entities registered in off-shore jurisdictions except for banks which have individual credit rating not below “A” from one of the rating agencies which list is approved by the competent authority cannot directly or indirectly own and/or deal with voting shares of the banks-residents of the Republic of Kazakhstan, reported the press-centre of Halyk Savings Bank.

The list of the abovementioned off-shore jurisdictions has been approved by the resolution # 145 of the Agency of the Republic of Kazakhstan on Regulation and Supervision of Financial Market and Financial Organizations dated 2 October 2008 “On approval of the list of off-shore jurisdictions for the purposes of banking and insurance activities, activities of professional participants of securities market and other licensable activities on securities market, activities of pension funds and joint-stock investment funds” (the “Resolution”) and includes the following off-shore jurisdictions:

1)Andorra; 2) Antigua and Barbuda; 3) the Bahamas: 4) Barbados; 5) Belize; 6) Brunei; 7) Vanuatu; 8) Guatemala; 9) Grenada; 10) Djibouti; 11) Dominican Republic; 12) Indonesia; 13) Spain (only Canary Islands); 14) Cyprus; 15) China (only Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and Macau Special Administrative Region); 16) Comoros; 17) Costa Rica; 18) Malaysia (only Labuan Enclave); 19) Liberia; 20) Lichtenstein; 21) Mauritius; 22) Portugal (only Madeira Island); 23) Maldives; 24) Malta; 25) the Marshall Islands; 26) Monaco; 27) the Union of Myanmar; 28) Nauru; 29) the Netherlands (only Aruba and the Antilles); 30) Nigeria; 31) New Zealand (only Cook Islands and Niue); 32) Palau; 33) Panama; 34) Samoa; 35) Seychelles; 36) Saint Vincent and the Grenadines; 37) Saint Kitts and Nevis; 38) Saint Lucia; 39) United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (only Anguilla, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Gibraltar, Cayman Islands, Montserrat, Turks and Caicos Islands, Isle of Man, Channel Islands (Guernsey, Jersey, Sark, Alderney)); 40) the United States of America (only U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, Puerto Rico); 41) Tonga; 42) Philippines; 43) Sri Lanka.

Please also be informed that the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan “On amendments and addendums to certain legislative acts of the Republic of Kazakhstan on stability of the financial system” dated 23 October 2008 stipulates the new requirement for the Bank’s shareholders intending to participate in the general shareholders’ meeting to provide a statement certifying the compliance by their shareholders (participants) with the abovementioned requirements of the Law in case the Bank has no information on state of registration of such shareholders (participants).

The shareholders who do not provide such statement will not be eligible to participate in the general shareholders’ meeting.

In case it has been detected that the statement contains incorrect information or there has been a breach of the abovementioned requirements of the Law:

1) if the majority of voting shares (except for voting shares of the shareholder who provided the
statement) voted for the resolution, the resolution of the general shareholders’ meeting is considered to be adopted without the votes of this shareholder;

2) if the vote of the shareholder who provided the statement was a decisive vote, this can be a basis to consider the resolution of the general shareholders’ meeting as invalid at the request of the competent authority or any other interested parties in the order stipulated by the legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

The Resolution came into force on 8 December 2008 and stipulates the requirement for the shareholders of financial organizations existing as at the date of enforcement of the Resolution (the “existing shareholders”) and registered in off-shore jurisdictions set by the Resolution to adjust their activity in accordance with the requirements of the Resolution by 1 April 2009. This provision implies that by 1 April 2009 the existing shareholders or their affiliates, or legal entities participants (shareholders) of which are existing shareholders-individuals, as well as participants (shareholders) of existing shareholders are subject to the requirements of the Resolution only in respect of the former list of offshore jurisdictions which included Andorra, Lichtenstein, Liberia, Monaco and the Marshall Islands.

Therefore, in order to keep the shareholder rights including the right to participate in management of the Bank, the existing shareholders are required to adjust their activity and activity of the abovementioned persons in accordance with the requirements of the Resolution in respect of state of registration by 1 April 2009.

The Resolution applies to other prospective shareholders of the Bank without exceptions starting from 8 December 2008.