Astana Financial Services Authority: highlights of activities in 2020

Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan – Astana Financial Services Authority is pleased to present the key outcomes of its activities in 2020:

Registration:

• 287 new registered participants (overall, 650 companies from 49 countries are registered now in the AIFC);
• Registration process has been 100% digitalised as of September 2020 and registration procedures duration shortened from 7 days in 2018 to 1 day in 2020.

Regulations:

• 5 new financial services introduced in relation to various investment selling and buying platforms (total number of financial services in AIFC is 35).
• 3 new forms of captive insurance introduced.

Regulatory support to AIFC Participants:

• COVID-19 Regulatory relief measures were introduced, which allowed business community of AIFC to focus on their business priorities during difficulty times;
• Base capital requirements were optimized;
• Liquidity requirements for investment firms were optimized.

FinTech: 8 new firms accepted to the FinTech Lab (30 in total engaged in areas such as crowdfunding, money services, digital assets etc.). AFSA contributed to harmonization of AIFC and national regulations on digital assets.

International Relations: AFSA signed 2 multilateral agreements: IOSCO Enhanced Multilateral Memorandum of Understanding and International Association of Insurance Supervisors, increasing its global supervisory cooperation reach with a view to secure market integrity and financial stability.  

Communications:

• AFSA held a virtual World Investor Week for purposes of educating consumers of financial services. More than 3,000 delegates from 23 cities of Kazakhstan and 10 countries participated.
• 37 public outreach events were held to help guide AIFC Participants through registration and authorisation process, explain regulatory regime of AIFC and promote compliance.