🇰🇿Broker licence in Kazakhstan: AFSA in the AIFC or ARDFM onshore

Concept

A broker setting up in Kazakhstan chooses between two legal systems inside one country. In the Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC) the licence comes from the Astana Financial Services Authority (AFSA), and capital requirements are set in US dollars. Everywhere else the Law on the Securities Market applies: the licence comes from the Agency of the Republic of Kazakhstan for Regulation and Development of the Financial Market (ARDFM), and capital is measured in monthly calculation indices (MRP) and tenge.

The two regimes exist because the AIFC was created by Constitutional Statute No. 438-V of 7 December 2015 as a separate legal order. AIFC acts may be based on the principles, rules and precedents of the law of England and Wales, and Kazakh law applies only where the Constitutional Statute and AIFC acts are silent (art. 4).

One regime's licence therefore does not replace the other's. An AFSA licence covers activity "in or from" the AIFC, and the AFSA itself urges participants to take advice on whether they need a separate ARDFM licence for business outside the centre (AFSA FAQ). The national law, for its part, reserves services to individuals on Kazakhstan's securities markets for licensed brokers and dealers.

Three features shape the choice between the regimes.

One group can hold both licences: at Freedom Holding, the ARDFM-licensed broker and the AIFC broker have each gained access to the other's exchange.

Key parameters

Eight parameters on which the two regimes compare with each other and with financial licences elsewhere:

The table shows that the regimes differ first of all by client: the AIFC is built for non-residents and international markets, the national licence for Kazakh retail clients and Kazakh securities. How both regimes sit among licences elsewhere is shown in the map of fintech licences; taxes, banks and residence are covered in the Kazakhstan hub.

AIFC: an AFSA licence

The AIFC has a general prohibition: a Centre Participant may not carry on a regulated activity without an AFSA licence (FSFR s.24). The AFSA grants a licence only if it is satisfied that the applicant has adequate resources, including financial resources, is fit and proper, can be effectively supervised and has adequate compliance arrangements. A refusal can be appealed to the AIFC Court (FSFR ss.34–35).

Activities and base capital

The AIFC General Rules (GEN, Schedule 1) define the core of a brokerage business through three activities:

• Dealing in Investments as Principal: buying, selling, subscribing for or underwriting investments as principal;
• Dealing in Investments as Agent: doing the same as agent;
• Arranging Deals in Investments: making arrangements with a view to another person buying or selling investments.

Each activity carries its own base capital under PRU (INV), Table 3.3 and its own application fee under the Fees Rules (FEES):

With several activities, the highest of the amounts is the base capital. A broker that executes client orders as agent and arranges deals therefore needs USD 50,000, while a broker with its own book or holding client assets in custody needs USD 500,000.

Dealing and intermediary firms

AIFC investment firms have no numbered categories; the prudential rules draw one line: a licence for dealing, as principal or as agent, makes a firm a PRU Dealing Investment Firm, while a licence only for managing, arranging, advising or custody makes it a PRU Intermediary Investment Firm (rule 1.3).

An intermediary firm's minimum capital equals its base capital. A dealing firm adds credit, market and operational risk requirements, set individually by the AFSA at authorisation under the relevant parts of the Basel standards (rule 3.3). On top of capital, every investment firm must hold liquid assets of at least 25% of its annual operating expenditure at all times; client money does not count (rules 4.2–4.3).

The AFSA may designate a branch of a foreign firm prudentially supervised at home to an equivalent standard as an Externally Regulated PRU Investment Firm; the chapters on minimum capital and liquid assets then do not apply to it. The article on regulatory capital compares regulators' methods.

AFSA fees

Besides the application fee, a broker pays an annual supervision fee, USD 500 for each Approved Individual application, and a company registration fee of USD 500 online or USD 1,500 on paper. The annual fees under FEES as in force from 1 December 2025 are:

For an application covering several activities the AFSA charges the highest of the fees plus 50% of the fee for each additional activity. Applied to a broker seeking dealing as agent and arranging deals, with four different people in the four mandatory roles, these rates give the amount due on filing: USD 14,000 for dealing, USD 3,500 (half of the USD 7,000 fee) for arranging and 4 × USD 500 for the Approved Individuals, a total of USD 19,500.

The same 50% add-on applies to the annual fee only from 1 January 2027; for 2026 a firm pays just the highest fixed fee and the highest variable fee. The first-year fee is pro-rated from the licence date. The AFSA has also consulted on raising all fixed fees by 5% a year in 2027–2029, which would take the dealing application fee to USD 16,210 in 2029; no decision had been adopted by the end of September 2026.

Process and timing

In the AIFC the licence comes first and the company second: incorporation is a condition of every authorisation, and the AFSA does not allow registration beforehand (AFSA FAQ). The FSFR sets no decision deadline. According to the AFSA, applications take around two to three months on average from the point they are materially complete; time spent waiting for the applicant is excluded. The AFSA's own service commitments are:

1. Acknowledgement and a case officer within two working days.
2. An Initial Review Letter within four weeks.
3. Up to two months for the applicant to respond; interviews with candidates for controlled functions may take place in this period.
4. Second-round comments within two weeks; a third draft of the application triggers a supplementary fee.
5. In-Principle Approval, whose conditions the applicant then meets, including incorporating the company (authorisation steps).

People on the ground

An authorised firm must fill four roles with AFSA-approved individuals at all times: Senior Executive Officer, Finance Officer, Compliance Officer and Money Laundering Reporting Officer (MLRO) (GEN 2.1.1).

According to the AFSA, the MLRO should generally be ordinarily resident in Kazakhstan and the Senior Executive Officer should spend appropriate time there; the FSFR lets the AFSA require residence for any controlled function (s.45). Foreign employees of an AIFC broker pay no personal income tax on AIFC employment income until 1 January 2066 (art. 6 of the Constitutional Statute). Staff relocation is covered in the article on Kazakhstan residence.

Clients and client money

The Conduct of Business Rules (COB) classify clients as Retail Clients, Professional Clients or Market Counterparties. An individual qualifies as an Assessed Professional Client only with net assets of at least USD 100,000 excluding the main residence, relevant experience or work history, and written consent after a warning (COB 2.5).

Money held for clients is Client Money, subject to segregation rules. Professional Clients and Market Counterparties may opt out of those rules in writing after a warning (COB 8.2); retail clients may not. The client asset protection map compares jurisdictions.

Law, courts and tax

Disputes between centre participants and over transactions made in the centre under its law go to the AIFC Court, a two-instance court outside Kazakhstan's court system (art. 13 of the Constitutional Statute). Until 1 January 2066 participants pay no corporate income tax on income from brokerage, dealing and underwriting services rendered in the centre, and those services are VAT-exempt (art. 6).

Outside the AIFC: an ARDFM licence

Outside the centre, brokerage and dealing on the securities market are carried on under a single licence (art. 63 of the Law on the Securities Market). It is issued in two versions, with or without the right to maintain client accounts as nominee holder; a dealer-only licence exists only where legislative acts provide for it.

Two versions of the licence

The nominee-holder right decides the legal form, the capital and whether the broker can keep client accounts.

Moving from the second version to the first therefore means converting an LLP into a JSC and, for any broker, a fivefold increase in minimum own capital.

Legal form and owners

A licensee may be a legal entity or a branch of a non-resident bank (art. 1); it follows from this closed definition that a foreign broker that is not a bank needs a Kazakh legal entity. A licensee must have an internal audit function, a management body and an executive body (art. 47-1).

Founders and shareholders may be residents or non-residents. Entities registered in offshore zones on the ARDFM list may not directly or indirectly hold voting shares in a licensee unless it is a subsidiary of a non-resident with the required minimum rating (art. 47). A licensee's shares are paid for in cash in tenge (art. 46). Resolution No. 168 ties an applicant's minimum charter capital to company law; for a JSC, the JSC Law sets 50,000 MRP, or KZT 216.25 million in 2026. Setting up an LLP or JSC is covered in the article on companies in Kazakhstan.

Capital and prudential ratios

The ratios are set by National Bank Board Resolution No. 80 of 27 April 2018, now amended by the ARDFM. The central one is a daily capital adequacy ratio of at least 1: highly liquid and liquid assets less total liabilities, divided by the sum of minimum own capital and operational risk.

Tenge amounts use the 2026 MRP of KZT 4,325 set by the budget law and move with it. The operational risk coefficient is 0 with no trades, 1 for average annual trades up to KZT 1 trillion, rising to 7 above KZT 7.5 trillion. A broker without the nominee-holder right that insures its liability to clients may reduce the absolute part of operational risk by the sum insured, by no more than 50%.

The diversification limit does not apply to Kazakh government securities, instruments of issuers more than 50% of whose voting shares belong to the state, a national managing holding or the National Bank, or securities in reverse repos with the central counterparty.

Under a separate ARDFM licence a broker may keep bank accounts for legal entities and individuals, make payments and transfers, lend, and carry out non-cash foreign exchange (art. 63). For accounts, transfers and loans Resolution No. 80 requires charter capital and own capital of at least KZT 10 billion each; foreign exchange is not on that list.

Process

Among the licensing conditions the law names a three-year business plan approved by the governing body (services, risks and their coverage by own capital, financial forecast, organisational structure), software and hardware meeting ARDFM rules, and an organisational structure that complies with the law (art. 48).

The ARDFM must issue the licence within 30 working days of the filing of compliant documents. It may suspend the review to check information; once the applicant fixes the issues, the further review may not exceed 30 calendar days (art. 50). The clock runs from a complete filing, so setting up the company and paying in capital come before it.

Changes in 2026

The 2026 acts that change how brokers outside the AIFC work:

The new Banking Law, which replaced the 1995 law, keeps the link between banking and brokerage in both directions: banks with a universal or the new basic licence may carry on brokerage and dealing under a separate ARDFM licence. Resolution No. 93 bans mis-selling in advice, hiding or distorting risks, restricting the client's freedom of choice and pushing paid add-on services.

Exchanges: AIX and KASE

AIX

An AIFC exchange may admit as members only AFSA-authorised firms, Recognised Non-AIFC Members (RNAM) and narrow groups of commodity-derivative and token participants (FSFR s.55). For a broker that means two routes, and AIX itself describes them the same way:

Either way, the exchange then runs its own process: application, due diligence, connectivity testing and go-live. Recognition carries fees under FEES; since 11 March 2026 trading members of exchanges in the Tabadul hub that seek RNAM status to trade on AIX pay half (AFSA notice):

The fixed annual fee applies to a member not admitted to trading or trading less than USD 25 million per quarter on each platform; above that, a turnover-based component is added by formula.

As of 29 September 2026 the AIX list of trading members has 69 entries: Kazakh brokers and banks, AIFC firms and foreign brokers from the UAE, Hong Kong, China, Cyprus, Russia and elsewhere. The AFSA register shows 33 active firms licensed for dealing as agent and 28 for dealing as principal, and the RNAM register 62 active recognitions.

In 2026 the AFSA recognised six more foreign brokers, and on 28 September it licensed Kaspi Broker Ltd. for dealing as agent, matched-principal dealing, arranging custody and advising; the firm is awaiting approval to commence operations.

KASE

Membership of the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange comes in three categories: stock, currency and derivatives. A Kazakh legal entity needs a valid brokerage and/or dealing licence for the stock and derivatives categories, and membership begins after a decision of KASE's authorised body and payment of the entry fee (KASE requirements). For the stock market the entry fee is 1,500 MRP (KZT 6.49 million in 2026), and the monthly fee 25 or 50 MRP depending on the fee scheme (KASE fee regulation).

KASE sets its own requirements for AIFC participants and foreign firms:

For the stock and derivatives categories a foreign broker also needs membership of a home exchange, and either a home regulator that has signed the IOSCO multilateral MoU or a sovereign rating of at least BBB-. As of 29 September 2026 KASE had 64 members, 58 of them in the stock category and 38 flagged as brokers.

Residents and non-residents

Whom an AIFC broker may serve is set by the AIFC currency rules (rules 3.3.2–3.3.3). A non-bank AIFC participant serves other centre participants and non-residents of Kazakhstan under its AFSA licence in tenge or foreign currency, with tenge running through accounts at Kazakh second-tier banks. Residents that are not AIFC participants can receive only the services listed in Schedule 2:

An AIFC broker can therefore give a Kazakh client access to foreign markets and AIX, but brokerage in Kazakh securities requires a national licence or direct settlement access. The same choice seen from the client's side, when opening an account with a foreign broker, is covered in the article on international brokerage accounts.

Freedom: one group, two licences

Freedom Holding runs brokers under both regimes. The table draws on the group's Form 10-K, the AFSA register and the KASE member list:

Each company has added the other regime's exchange: the national broker reaches AIX through RNAM recognition without an AIFC licence, while the AIFC broker has joined KASE's stock category. The group reports its scale without splitting it by licence: about 858,000 retail brokerage accounts at 31 March 2026, up from 683,000 a year earlier, of which about 149,000 were active. The group's bank and its regulatory background are covered in the Freedom Bank profile.

Choosing a regime

The clients and the markets they trade decide the regime; capital, timing, law and exchange follow from that choice. Three typical cases:

Comparable brokerage regimes in the UK, Cyprus, the US and Hong Kong are set side by side in the “Financial licences” hub.

Risks and limitations

The boundary between the AIFC and the rest of the country is not always clear in practice. Freedom Holding states in its annual report that Kazakhstan's mainland framework applies to AIFC brokers where AFSA rules are silent, and that, given limited enforcement practice, it is sometimes uncertain which regulation applies to AIFC brokers and dealers. This is the issuer's own risk disclosure, but the AFSA itself advises checking whether business outside the centre needs an ARDFM licence.

Capital is hard to fix in advance under both regimes. A dealing firm in the AIFC learns its risk add-ons only at authorisation. Outside the centre all amounts are tied to the MRP and change every year, and operational risk grows with turnover.