Central bank governor of the year 2003: Kazakhstan sets CIS banking standard

National Bank of Kazakhstan's governor, Grigori Marchenko, won't say it, but he has been the main influence behind his country's widely acclaimed economic success story.

SUMMER IN ALMATY can be soporific. Power-napping on a bench, enjoying the shade of the silver birches and the warblings of the mynah birds on the quiet street that is home to the National Bank of Kazakhstan, you could be forgiven for thinking you are about to enter a sleepy organization.

You would be completely wrong. The hushed corridors of the NBK might exude an atmosphere of studious calm, but there’s also a sense of the dynamism that has driven a financial services sector that is universally regarded as the best in the Commonwealth of Independent States.

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