The Astana Financial Services Authority (AFSA) has published three consultation papers seeking market feedback on proposed amendments to the Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC) regulatory framework covering capital markets, digital assets and crowdfunding. For capital markets, the proposals would streamline disclosure and approval processes for securities offerings, apply corporate governance requirements only to equity issuers (and disapply them for debenture issuers), expand membership eligibility of an Authorised Market Institution, align client classification with the broader AIFC framework, raise the cap on fungible securities that can be traded or offered on an Authorised Investment Exchange without a prospectus, and increase the threshold for determining related party status. In digital assets, proposed changes include exempting certain Digital Asset Service Providers whose models do not involve holding or controlling digital assets or using distributed ledger technology from specified obligations, revising capital requirements for Digital Asset Trading Facility operators, expanding eligibility for trading facility membership, and revising the notification process for admitting digital assets to trading. For crowdfunding platforms, AFSA proposes expanded disclosures, tighter borrower and issuer eligibility requirements, a new investment limit for retail clients, restrictions on funding for borrowers with payment issues, enhanced risk warnings, standardised client categories (“Retail Client” and “Professional Client”), permission for sole proprietors to use crowdfunding as borrowers and issuers with AFSA approval, and removal of the “Providing Private Financing Platform” licence from the framework. Comments are requested by September 2025.

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