Astana, 11 November. The Agency for Regulation and Development of the Financial Market (ARDFM) has obliged professional securities market participants and the central depository to monitor large purchases of non-cash foreign currency, according to the agency’s resolution No. 158 of 30 October 2026, which was published on 11 November.
Clients who buy currency worth more than the equivalent of 3 million US dollars (individuals) or 10 million dollars (legal entities) in one operating day fall under the control.
Organisations must examine such operations. If a client reaches the threshold during an operating day, further currency purchase orders are accepted “no later than one working day before the date of the conversion operation”, LS quotes the document. The requirement does not apply to buying currency to purchase securities, or to operations of non-residents who have already passed due diligence, Interfax specifies.
According to LS’s description, during monitoring organisations analyse the origin of the money, identify ultimate beneficiaries and study the clients’ business reputation and licences. Clients are checked against lists of persons previously refused service, and operations with high-risk countries and offshore zones receive special attention. The resolution also supplements the requirements for opening accounts for non-residents and electronic residents of organisations. According to LS, non-residents face enhanced control, including mandatory biometrics and detailed document checks.
The document takes effect ten calendar days after its first official publication. The aim of the measure is to counter the laundering of criminal proceeds.
What it means: Headlines such as “Kazakhstanis will be required to submit currency purchase orders in advance” read wider than the document itself. It is addressed to professional securities market participants, that is, brokers and the central depository, and the threshold is millions of dollars a day. Banks and exchange offices are not mentioned in the reports on the resolution.
Background: The National Bank has a separate threshold too: under its resolution No. 28 of 31 March 2026, in force since 18 April, the threshold for checking the purpose of buying non-cash foreign currency on the domestic market stays at 50,000 dollars. These are separate rules of different regulators.
