Evergreen guide · Updated 3 July 2026
Who regulates banks, payments and fintech in each country of the region: central banks, the AIFC's special role in Kazakhstan, licences and supervision.
Financial regulators set the rules by which banks, payment systems and fintech players operate. In Central Asia and Azerbaijan each country has its own central bank, while in Kazakhstan supervision is arranged in a more complex way — with a separate agency and the AIFC platform.
A regulator issues licences, sets capital, anti-fraud and customer-protection requirements, defines payment standards and determines where the line runs between a payment, a loan and an investment. That is why a regulator's decisions shape the frame for many market products at once.
Each country of the region has a central bank, while in Kazakhstan the financial market is shared by several bodies — this is important to keep in mind when reading news about licences and rules.
In Kazakhstan monetary policy and supervision are partly divided between the national bank and a dedicated agency, while international players can operate through the AIFC — a separate legal circuit with a jurisdiction compatible with English law and its own financial regulator. This creates parallel regimes for local and international companies.
Look at new licences and regimes, payment standards and instant transfers, regulatory sandboxes, open-banking initiatives, capital and anti-fraud requirements, and how far the rules of different countries are converging with one another.
The functions are divided: the National Bank of Kazakhstan is responsible for monetary policy, while the Agency for Regulation and Development of the Financial Market (ARDFM) handles supervision; separately, the AFSA regulator operates on the AIFC platform.
The AIFC is a separate legal circuit in Astana with a jurisdiction compatible with English law and its own regulator, the AFSA. International players often enter through it, whereas the local market is regulated by national bodies.
Product models in the region migrate between markets, and rules converge unevenly. Comparing regulators helps to understand where a launch is easier and where the market is heading.