The Agency of the Republic of Kazakhstan for Regulation and Development of Financial Market (ARDFM), together with the National Bank and consulting firm Oliver Wyman, are developing a market development program up to 2030. The reform covers pension assets, instruments for SMEs, and international integration, but for the technology sector, the main signal is the plan to fully digitize securities issuance.
What happened
According to Kapital.kz, the regulator is preparing a new capital market law. The document implies the introduction of a “single window” principle for market participants and a large-scale modernization of exchange, clearing, and depository infrastructure. The draft law is expected to be prepared by the end of 2026, with October cited as the target for submission to parliament.
Country and market
Equity market capitalization in Kazakhstan has reached 39 trillion tenge, which is about 24% of GDP. The volume of corporate bonds exceeded 16 trillion tenge (about 10% of GDP). Over 5 million accounts have been opened in the Central Securities Depository.
At the same time, ARDFM Chairperson Madina Abylkassymova notes chronic problems: the market lacks liquidity, the active investor base remains narrow, and businesses rarely use the exchange for long-term funding.
Why it matters
The reform goes beyond simple legal amendments. The document touches upon the management of pension assets and the protection of investor rights, but the technological part of the program deserves special attention. The transition to fully digital issuance will require new infrastructure solutions. Expanding instruments for small and medium-sized businesses will likely entail a need for advanced data analytics and automated risk assessment.
This fits into the general logic of public sector digitization: Finteqstan previously wrote about Kazakhstan's transition from the e-Gov concept to AI-Gov. Now, technological transformation is reaching fundamental financial institutions.
What’s next
The program is designed to run until 2030. Fintech companies should monitor the requirements for integration with the Central Securities Depository and international settlement systems as drafts of the law are published.
It is likely that the digitization of basic infrastructure will force local brokers to invest in predictive analytics and RegTech products to process new data volumes without inflating staff.