NUR-SULTAN – The Astana Financial Services Authority (AFSA) launched on Oct.5 the third Virtual World Investor Week in Kazakhstan to give lectures on the basic principles of investing, consumers’ rights, and financial services at the Astana International Financial Center (AIFC). The online event will last through Oct. 9.
Photo credit: The AFSA.
World Investor Week is an annual international event held under the auspices of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO). IOSCO is an international organization that unites the world’s securities regulators. IOSCO members regulate more than 95 percent of the world’s securities market in more than 115 jurisdictions.
“It aims to give additional knowledge to retail investors about opportunities and risks, as well as warnings about new scam schemes,” AFSA CEO Mukhtar Bubeyev told Atameken Business Channel in an interview.
Following global trends, the pandemic has doubled the growth of retail investors in Kazakhstan. The pandemic served as a push factor for people to start planning their savings and increasing their earnings. The Kazakh Central Securities Depository still has only about 100,000 registered accounts of retail investors.
“We aim to attract as many Kazakhs as possible into investing. We encourage a passive investment scheme, so that buyers won’t buy stocks in a single company, but instead will rely on a portfolio decision,” said CFO at Astana International Exchange (AIX) Renat Bekturov.
The AIX also listed four new investment instruments, ETNs (exchange-traded notes) on gold, companies with high dividends, companies with high yield corporate bonds, and US short-term treasury bills Oct. 5. According to Bekturov, the new ETNs should attract more small individual investors interested in the Kazakh stock exchange.
