The Astana Financial Services Authority (AFSA) has issued amendments to the Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC) Capital Market, Digital Assets and Crowdfunding frameworks, with changes commencing on 1 January 2026 following a public consultation held from 21 July to 15 September 2025. Alongside the rule changes, AFSA is introducing Feedback Statements for the first time to summarise consultation themes, set out its responses, and explain how stakeholder input was reflected in the final amendments. For capital markets, the amendments narrow corporate governance requirements to issuers of equity securities, expand membership eligibility at an Authorised Market Institution, align client classification with the wider AIFC framework, enhance prospectus disclosures and the listing process, and raise thresholds used for related party determinations and for prospectus exemptions for offers of fungible securities. Post-consultation refinements include adjusting prospectus exemptions to broaden cross-listing opportunities and support a dual-listing regime, and removing the requirement for issuers incorporated in Kazakhstan to appoint an agent for service of process. In digital assets, AFSA’s targeted review confirms that all firms conducting activities in relation to digital assets should be treated as Digital Asset Service Providers, and clarifies that certain governance and technology obligations depend on whether a firm holds or controls digital assets or uses distributed ledger technology; further changes revise capital requirements for Digital Asset Trading Facility operators, expand membership eligibility, update notifications for admission of digital assets to trading, consolidate various rulebooks into a single set of Business Rules, allow a white paper to be incorporated by reference into key features documents, and increase the digital asset inclusion threshold to 50% when calculating an individual client’s net assets for Assessed Professional Client status. For crowdfunding, AFSA strengthens due diligence expectations for borrowers and issuers, enhances requirements for handling defaults and overdue payments including restricting new lending proposals for borrowers in default, requires disclosure of creditworthiness grading or ratings, introduces annual lending and investment limits for retail clients, expands risk disclosure measures, and adds loan restructuring disclosures, while also aligning client classification; refinements include removing the initially proposed retail-client suitability assessment and adjusting parts of the due diligence and default framework. All three packages commence on 1 January 2026, with a six-month transition period for existing Authorised Crowdfunding Platforms.

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