Nur-Sultan: Financial Heart of Central Asia

Vladimir Bachishin. Photo credit: krimchel.ru.

Editor’s note: This is the final article in the 3-part series “In Summer and Winter, and All Year Round – Nur-Sultan Knows How To Live” by prominent Slovak journalist and academic Vladimir Bachishin. Нe is the winner of the sixth international contest titled Kazakhstan Through the Eyes of Foreign Media organized by the Kazakh Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the NGO Chief Editors Club. In his series of articles , he reviews the history, geographical location of the megapolis, and the consumer and business infrastructure of the new capital of modern Kazakhstan.

The first article “Nur-Sultan: A Long History of a New Capital” was published here.

The second article “Khan Shatyr: Don’t Miss One of The Wonders of the Modern World” here.

The largest financial center in Central Asia is located in Kazakhstan. Astana International Financial Center has reached a turnover of $25.1 billion in two years. Part of the center is the Exchange, information on which can be found at www.AIX.com.

Kazakhstan is not just about shopping, recreation, and entertainment in the capital city… One of the most important places here is the Astana International Financial Center, which has been operating since January 1, 2018.

The center was created at the initiative of the First President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev. It was established on the basis of a constitutional law and is regulated by British Law. It consists of an Independent Court and an International Arbitration Center. At the moment, six disputes have been settled.

The largest financial center in Central Asia is located in Kazakhstan. Photo credit: financnenoviny.com.

How does it all work? The Center cooperates with the largest stock exchanges in the world and many international financial institutions. The first element of the international financial center is the Astana International Exchange. What is it like? The market participants include 600 companies from 49 countries of the world. During the two years of its existence, the financial center provided trading in securities, namely government debt securities, for the amount of $3.9 billion, and private debt securities for the amount of $4.5 billion. The market capitalization amounted to $25.1 billion.

The list of major issuing companies also includes prominent companies from Kazakhstan. To issue – means to issue securities into circulation. Issuer – an organization that issues securities.

Companies like KazAtomProm, Polymetal, Halyk Bank of Kazakhstan, Ferro Alloy Resources Limited, Kcell, Кaspi.kz trade their securities on the Exchange. Their total capitalization for two years amounted to $25.1 billion.

The financial center is also interested in the latest financial technologies, which include digital technologies. In this regard, the FinTech Lab platform was opened. Among the center’s newest products is software that ordinary citizens can use to invest in stocks and bonds.

The Exchange utilizes modern market technologies – Nasdaq matching engine. In total, it has 26 trading members, brokerage firms, and 16 of them are domestic. These are all major Kazakh brokerage firms, including Halyk Finance, Freedom Finance, Sky Bridge Invest and others. The other nine members of the Exchange are international companies, including CITICS, RenCap, WOOD & Co, CICC, Sova, ITI Capital, VTB Capital. The tenth foreign member of the Exchange is the Eurasian Development Bank.

The Exchange utilizes modern market technologies – Nasdaq matching engine. Photo credit: aix.kz.

The Exchange also includes depositories and trading participants. It is a complete vertically integrated infrastructure: proprietary Central Securities Depository (AIX CSD) and proprietary Securities Registrar (AIX Registrar). In addition, the members of AIX CSD are well-known securities managers specializing in international and emerging markets, such as Sberbank and Raiffeisen Bank, as well as national banks such as Halyk Bank, BCC Euroclear, Citibank Kazakhstan (Citi) and Rosbank from the Société Générale group. Trading is conducted in many currencies. Market data, i.e. the real-time exchange rate, is available in the Refinitiv system. The trading results at the end of the trading day can be accessed through the system of the news agency Bloomberg.

Financne noviny”

https://financnenoviny.com/letom-zimou-svetom-a-nursultan-on-vie-to-3/

Previously, AT published an article by another contest winner, Dr. Mehmood UI Hassan Khan (Pakistan) “Abai Kunanbaiuly: The Man With a Strategic Vision, and a documentary by Tony Ruprecht (Canada) “Kazakhstan Through the Eyes оf Canadians”.


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