AFSA Authorisation: The Requirements, Restated
What an applicant must demonstrate to be authorised within the AIFC regime, restated in plain sentences.
The Astana International Financial Centre operates its own regulatory regime with its own authority. Authorisation under it follows the pattern common to international financial centres.
The general shape
An applicant must show that it is fit and proper, adequately resourced, properly governed, and able to meet continuing obligations. Each of those is tested through documentation rather than assertion.
Fit and proper
Applies to the entity and to the individuals controlling it. Covers integrity, competence and financial soundness, assessed through declarations, background checks and references.
In plain terms: the authority is deciding whether these people should be trusted with other people’s money.
Resources
Financial and operational. Capital adequate to the activity and to its risks, plus systems and staff sufficient to run it.
The capital figure depends on the permissions sought. It is specified in the rules and varies by activity, so the current text is the only reliable source for the number.
Governance
Named individuals holding specified functions, a board with defined responsibilities, and separation between functions that should not be combined.
Compliance and risk cannot report to the people whose work they check. This is the point of the requirement.
Continuing obligations
Reporting, audit, customer due diligence, record keeping, and notification of material changes. These continue for as long as the authorisation does.
What the process involves
A detailed application, a business plan, policies for each obligation, and a period of engagement with the authority. Timelines are measured in months rather than weeks.
What I will not state
Specific capital figures, fees, or timelines. These change and the current rulebook is the authoritative source. Anyone preparing an application reads it rather than a summary.
Why this matters to a customer
Because the obligations above are what distinguish a supervised counterparty from an unsupervised one. A licensed exchange under a named supervisor has demonstrated each of them to somebody.
Collect & Exchange operates under its own named framework, which can be checked on a public register, and an exchange with compliance built into onboarding is one where those obligations are visible at the point of use.
This page restates a published requirement. It is not the requirement itself and it is not legal advice. Rules change, and some take effect on a date later than their publication.