AFSA and Georgia's central bank present their mutual market access project

The Astana Financial Services Authority and the National Bank of Georgia presented a project to give financial firms in each jurisdiction access to the other's capital markets and asset management at an event in Tbilisi on 28 October, the Astana International Financial Centre said.

The Mutual Access and Recognition Project was presented by Ekaterine Mikabadze, First Vice-Governor of the National Bank of Georgia, and Evgeniya Bogdanova, chief executive of the Astana Financial Services Authority (AFSA), the AIFC's regulator, at AIFC Connect: Tbilisi 2026, a side event of the Tbilisi Finance Summit. The AIFC describes it as an initiative to set up practical mechanisms for mutual market access for financial institutions and other market participants operating in the AIFC and Georgia. Neither the AIFC nor the National Bank of Georgia gave a start date or named the first firms that would use it.

What the September memorandum covers

The project rests on a memorandum of understanding on mutual access and recognition in financial services that the two regulators signed on 9 September during Astana Finance Days. AFSA's release on the signing says it covers capital markets and asset management and provides a basis for cooperation on the cross-border provision of financial services and the cross-border listing of securities.

The memorandum is a statement of intent rather than an access regime. Under it, the two authorities intend to work towards practical mutual access arrangements for eligible market participants, subject to the legal and regulatory requirements of each jurisdiction, with closer supervisory cooperation and information exchange alongside, AFSA said. The two regulators first signed a memorandum on regulatory cooperation and information exchange in 2018.

"Our shared priority now is to translate these commitments into practical measures," Bogdanova said in Tbilisi, according to the AIFC, adding that the work also had to uphold high standards of investor protection.

Georgia's bond market as the draw

The Georgian side put its case in terms of its own market. Mikabadze said 2025 was a record year for public corporate bond issuance, with new issues of GEL 1.57 billion, most of them in local currency, the National Bank of Georgia said on 30 October. She also cited the publication of Georgian government bond indices on international platforms, including Bloomberg, as a step towards making Georgian securities more visible to foreign investors.

Before the event, Governor Natia Turnava met Renat Bekturov, Governor of the AIFC, and an AFSA delegation, and the two sides discussed efforts to facilitate mutual access to securities markets, the central bank said. David Abesadze, head of the bank's securities market supervision department, attended, as did Giorgi Edilashvili, head of its international relations department.

A panel at the Tbilisi event included Otar Sharikadze, director of TBC Capital, Giorgi Kuprashvili, chief executive of Galt & Taggart, and Nikoloz Geguchadze, general director of Halyk Bank Georgia, the AIFC said. Georgia Capital, which invests in Georgian businesses, has reported a record third-quarter net asset value per share, as Boards and Capital reported.

Bilateral trade was USD 184.5 million in 2025 and USD 53 million in January to April 2026, and Kazakhstan has invested more than USD 500 million in Georgia, the AIFC said. Twenty companies from Georgia are registered in the AIFC.

For a board of a Georgian or AIFC-registered broker or fund manager, the practical questions are what recognition would let a firm do across the border without a second licence, and which of the home rules would still apply. The releases do not answer them. AFSA also administers the AIFC rules that govern the boards of firms in the centre, which Boards and Capital set out on 23 October.