The National Bank, the Agency for Regulation and Development of the Financial Market (ARDFM), and the Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC) are preparing a common financial market development strategy that will formalize a general agreement between the agencies. Investors and businesses will gain more clarity on licensing and securities issuance registration, but until mid-2027 they will have to work under the previous fragmented rules.
National Bank Chairman Timur Suleimenov, at the XIV Congress of Financiers, characterized the current situation as a "zoo of regulators." Today the market is handled by three agencies — the National Bank, the ARDFM, and the AIFC — and in the future Alatau City will be added to them. It is difficult for an ordinary investor and financier to figure out where to submit documents, where to obtain a license, and where to register issuance prospectuses.
Why a common strategy is needed
The solution will be a unified market development strategy with a general agreement between the regulators. The document will preserve the independence of the agencies enshrined in law, but will allow them to exchange supervisory, statistical, and methodological information. Suleimenov emphasized that the supervisory bodies must "look in the same direction" and jointly protect the rights of investors and consumers.
Requirements in different jurisdictions may differ, but their content must satisfy all participants, including Alatau City. The head of the National Bank acknowledged that some issues remain unanswered, so the regulators will discuss approaches with market participants. The final version of the strategy is planned to be presented before the end of the first half of 2027.
Loopholes will be closed, flexibility preserved
ARDFM Head Madina Abylkasymova warned about the risk of regulatory arbitrage — a situation where a company chooses a jurisdiction with softer rules to evade supervision or obtain benefits, including tax benefits under the AIFC regime. According to her, it is important to eliminate such cases, as well as unfair competition.
To this end, the ARDFM and the National Bank will revise the requirements for licensing, listing, and disclosure so that the regime in both jurisdictions becomes equally acceptable. Abylkasymova expects reciprocal steps from the AIFC and Alatau City: their regulation must comply with international standards for investor protection and anti-money laundering. For businesses, this means more level competitive conditions, but fewer opportunities to save on differences in rules.
AIFC Governor Renat Bekturov sees both advantages and disadvantages in the diversity of regulators. Kazakhstan has two legal regimes in operation — common law and civil law — which gives the market flexibility, although rules should be built on the principle of "same risk — same rules." Among the drawbacks, he cited the inability to make decisions as quickly and implement them across the entire market at once, but different approaches help respond more promptly to new financial products.
Part of a larger capital market reform
The regulators' agreement fits into a large-scale restructuring of the market: the authorities recently presented a draft law "On the Capital Market," which will replace the law "On the Securities Market" in force since 2003. The new document will bring the rules closer to EU and IOSCO standards and will cover digital financial assets, while the number of retail investor accounts has already exceeded 5 million.
As part of the same program, by 2030 Abylkasymova proposed expanding the work of investment funds so that Kazakhstanis could invest money in ready-made portfolios. This is the same course toward transparency: before buying units, an investor will receive a document in a unified format with risks and fees, although fund returns are not guaranteed.
Control over large sums of money is also being tightened: the ARDFM has obligated brokers to check individuals who buy non-cash currency worth more than $3 million per day, and companies with purchases exceeding $10 million. This anti-money-laundering measure echoes Abylkasymova's call for the AIFC and Alatau City to raise their standards: the faster the market grows, the more important it is for regulators to know the origin of capital.
Cryptalist analysis: Kazakhstan's initiative reflects a global trend toward consolidating supervision and eliminating regulatory arbitrage — a factor critically important for institutional capital, which evaluates a jurisdiction by the predictability of its rules. However, the implementation horizon stretched to 2027 preserves uncertainty and may restrain the inflow of foreign investment in the short term. For the crypto sector, the inclusion of digital assets in the new capital market law signals a move toward a more mature and integrated regulatory model.