Kazakhstan drafts capital market law to ease SME listings and investor protections

September 25, 2026 at 04:49 PM1 min

This digest was compiled by AI from multiple sources — links to the originals are below.

Kazakhstan has published a draft Capital Market Law to replace the 2003 Securities Market Law. The reform aims to simplify securities issuance for small and medium-sized businesses and strengthen investor protections. The draft was released for public discussion in September 2026.

Key Facts

The draft Capital Market Law was published for public discussion in September 2026.
Equity market capitalization on the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange reached KZT 47.7 trillion ($100.5 billion) as of July 31.
Corporate debt in circulation on KASE stood at KZT 16.8 trillion ($35 billion).
Around 90% of financing for small and medium-sized businesses in Kazakhstan is linked to the banking sector, according to reform documents citing the Damu Entrepreneurship Development Fund.
The existing Securities Market Law has been amended by more than 60 legislative acts since 2003.

Reform Scope

The draft law replaces the Securities Market Law adopted in 2003. The regulatory policy consultation paper proposes changing more than half of the existing provisions. Technical rules would be moved to secondary legislation to allow adjustments without full legislative approval.

SME Market Access

The draft creates a separate category for SMEs with simplified listing, delisting, and disclosure rules. Smaller issuers would be able to use an abbreviated securities prospectus. Companies making repeat issues would no longer need to prepare the entire document set from scratch. KASE introduced less stringent listing conditions for smaller companies in 2017, but state procedures remained unchanged.