Launching a Licensed Brokerage in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Armenia or Georgia: What It Costs and How Long It Takes

In Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Armenia and Georgia, the regulator's capital floor for a broker that executes client orders starts at USD 50,000 in the Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC). A broker that also holds clients' securities needs USD 500,000 there, or about USD 484,000 in Kazakhstan's national regime, and both regimes add risk charges on top. Review periods run from 20 working days in Uzbekistan to two or three months in the AIFC. Staff, the trading terminal, the back office and the exchange connection come on top, and no official document puts a figure on them.

Where does the money go when you launch a brokerage?

The money falls into two parts. The first is what the licence demands, and the documents quoted below put numbers on some of it:

• Capital the company keeps in its own funds for as long as it holds the licence. It is not paid to anyone, but it cannot be spent below the floor. Regulators use different names for it below: base capital, own capital, charter capital or total capital
• Fees to the regulator, the state, the exchange and the central depository, the body that holds securities and settles trades
• People the regulator approves, usually including a chief executive, a compliance officer and a money laundering reporting officer (MLRO)
• An external auditor, local lawyers for the application, and an office

The second part is the build: the trading terminal your clients use and the back office behind it. The back office opens accounts and checks identity, records money in and out, and keeps positions. It also checks each order against the client's limits and produces the reports the regulator asks for. Add the exchange connection, hosting, security and the people who run it all.

Salaries start early: the approved people are paid for months before the first client arrives.

Amounts in local currency are converted to US dollars at each central bank's official rate of 8 October 2026 (7 October for Armenia).

Which licence do we need in Kazakhstan: AIFC or national?

Kazakhstan has two separate regimes. The AIFC has rules based on English common law, its own regulator, the Astana Financial Services Authority (AFSA), and its own exchange, the Astana International Exchange (AIX). The national regime is supervised by the Agency for Regulation and Development of the Financial Market (ARDFM), and its exchange is the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE).

In the AIFC, a broker that buys and sells for clients needs a licence for Dealing in Investments as Agent. AFSA's prudential rules (the rules on how much money a firm must hold), in force since 1 January 2025, set its base capital at USD 50,000. If the firm also holds clients' securities itself (Providing Custody), the figure is USD 500,000. The full minimum adds credit, market and operational risk charges that AFSA sets for each firm individually.

AFSA's fee rules, in force since 1 December 2025, charge USD 14,000 to apply, USD 500 per approved person and USD 9,800 a year. Four roles need approval: a Senior Executive Officer, a Finance Officer, a Compliance Officer and an MLRO. The MLRO generally must live in Kazakhstan. AFSA's FAQ puts average processing at “around two to three months” from a materially complete application, excluding the time AFSA waits for your answers.

AIX membership is a separate step with a higher bar. A market notice on minimum capital, dated November 2020 and still among AIX's rules, asks every member for total equity of at least USD 500,000. Joining costs USD 5,000 and membership USD 10,000 a year, according to the 2025 fee list. Under the business rules, amended in February 2026, AIX would “generally expect” to process a complete application within two weeks.

In the national regime, ARDFM issues a broker and dealer licence with or without the right to keep client accounts as a nominee holder. That right lets the broker hold clients' securities in its own name. Its prudential rules set minimum own capital at 50,000 monthly calculation indices (MRP) with that right and 10,000 MRP without. The MRP is a unit fixed in tenge each year, and at the 2026 MRP of 4,325 tenge the two minimums are about USD 484,000 and USD 97,000.

On top of that, the capital adequacy ratio adds an operational-risk charge of at least 15,000 MRP, so liquid assets net of liabilities must cover at least 65,000 or 25,000 MRP every day. The Law on the Securities Market gives ARDFM 30 working days from a complete set of documents to decide.

ARDFM's licensing rules ask you to file the contract for developing or supplying your software, and the certificate of its handover, with the application. A firm that wrote its own software, or received it free of charge, is exempt from those two documents. KASE's access rules, in force since 1 July 2026, let a member connect its own software through FIX and other gateways only after that software passes KASE's certification. FIX is a messaging standard that, in the FIX Trading Community's words, financial institutions use “to communicate trading information electronically”.

Who licenses a broker in Uzbekistan in 2026?

The regulator is the National Agency of Perspective Projects (NAPP). A presidential decree of 18 December 2025 named it the authorised body for the capital market, licensing included. The decree also sets a minimum charter capital for each licensed activity, paid in cash. Charter capital is the capital registered in the company's founding documents.

The minimum is 3,000 base calculation amounts (BCA) from 1 July 2026, 4,000 from July 2027 and 6,000 from July 2028. A decree of 23 June 2026 put the BCA at 440,000 soums from 1 September 2026, so 3,000 BCA is 1.32 billion soums (about USD 112,000).

Your systems are a licence condition too. The Central Securities Depository must issue a conclusion that they meet the requirements for investment intermediaries and are ready to exchange data with the exchange, the depository and other participants. The head of the firm needs a degree in a related field and two years of relevant experience.

NAPP's licensing regulation, in force since 1 July 2026, gives it 20 working days from accepting the application to decide. The review is free, and the licence has no end date. Shares trade on the Republican Stock Exchange “Toshkent” (UZSE). The AIFC's report on regional capital markets, published in June 2026, says more than 50 licensed brokerage firms operate in Uzbekistan, many of them mainly providing custody and administrative services.

What does Armenia's Central Bank ask for?

In Armenia a brokerage is an investment company licensed by the Central Bank of Armenia (CBA) under the Law on Securities Market. The CBA has one month from the application to decide, and an amended application restarts the month. The state duty is AMD 500,000 (Armenian drams) a year. Managers need a professional qualification and CBA registration, and the firm needs internal audit and a yearly external audit.

The CBA's Regulation 4/02 sets minimum total capital at AMD 20 million for a firm that executes client orders without holding client assets, and AMD 50 million if it holds them. AMD 50 million is about USD 138,000. If the firm offers leveraged contracts, forex included, where clients put up only a margin, both figures triple.

AMX, the Armenia Securities Exchange, reviews a membership package within 15 business days under its June 2025 membership guide. Membership costs AMD 500,000 once plus AMD 400,000 every six months, before VAT. Its trading guide says its AMXTrader system “also allows connection of external trading systems via the FIX protocol using private network or VPN connection”. The IMF's December 2025 report on Armenia calls local capital markets “shallow”, so check early which markets your clients will trade.

What do we need for a brokerage licence in Georgia?

The Georgian market is small. The National Bank of Georgia (NBG) published its capital market overview on 30 March 2026. It says that by the end of 2025 “shares of two companies were admitted for trading on the exchange”, with a combined market capitalisation of GEL 631 million (Georgian lari). If your clients want shares, the connection you need most may be to a foreign broker rather than to the Georgian Stock Exchange (GSE).

Under the Law on Securities Market, the NBG has 45 working days to decide on a brokerage licence and may extend that by up to 15 working days. The licence fee is GEL 5,000. NBG Order 145/04 sets minimum capital at GEL 500,000 (about USD 192,000). The lower GEL 150,000 covers only advice, research and placing securities without a guarantee, so a broker that executes client orders needs the full amount.

Order 145/04 also requires the application to name the provider of the trading platform, where there is one, and to describe its technical characteristics. The broker must agree its choice of provider with the NBG, so in Georgia you choose the platform before you file.

How long does it take in practice?

Every review period above starts when the regulator has a complete file. Before that, you set up the company, pay in the capital, hire the people who need approval and write the policies. No law sets a period for that part. Questions from the regulator move the date too, as the Armenian and AIFC rules above show.

The build runs on a second clock, and in Kazakhstan's national regime, Uzbekistan and Georgia, part of it must be settled before you file. The exchange sets the last steps. AIX lists technical connectivity tests among its membership steps, and before its move to a new trading platform in April 2026 it told members that “In-house and third-party FIX-based OMS will require re-certification on the new platform”. An OMS, or order management system, is the software that sends client orders to the exchange and tracks them.

Any of these can push the date back on either clock:

• A proposed manager or MLRO fails the regulator's checks
• The bank is slow to open the client money account
• A connection or certification test fails and has to be booked again
• Nobody agreed the exchange's market data terms, so clients cannot see its prices

Should we build our own terminal or rent a platform?

A white-label platform, which you rent and run under your own brand, is the faster start and suits a broker that is still testing demand. Building your own terminal makes sense when clients choose you for the screen itself, or for a market that ready platforms do not reach. Either way, ask early whether the connection to your exchange already exists, because building one is a project of its own.

Who builds the terminal and the exchange connection, and how do we check them?

Platform vendors license or rent you their product. Exchanges may give members a terminal of their own: KASE lets members trade through terminals it provides, and AMX offers AMXTrader in web, desktop and mobile versions. Engineering firms build a terminal, a back office or an exchange connection that becomes yours. Put the same five questions to each of them:

• Which of KASE, AIX, UZSE, AMX and GSE have you connected to, which certification tests did you pass, and which broker uses that connection today?
• What is checked before each order leaves, and what happens when a check fails?
• What does the terminal show when the exchange connection drops, and how are positions matched with the exchange and the depository afterwards?
• Which regulator reports does the back office produce, and who updates them when the rules change?
• Who owns the code, and on what terms do we use any parts you keep?

Where does amBrain fit?

amBrain builds algorithmic trading infrastructure: order execution, market data and pre-trade risk controls.

One line on amBrain's website reads: “Trading terminal development, order management systems, and FIX protocol exchange integration.”

amBrain has been building software since 2019. It works in three formats: full delivery, a dedicated team, or engineers embedded in your team. The client keeps full ownership of the product and the code, except amBrain's reusable components.

This article is not a case study. It does not claim that amBrain has obtained a licence or helped anyone obtain one, or that amBrain has worked with any regulator or exchange in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Armenia or Georgia. It quotes no amBrain prices or timelines, and it is not legal advice: confirm every figure with the regulator and with local counsel before you commit money.

If you are planning the build side, send amBrain the exchanges you need and the same five questions you send every other firm.

Common questions

• Can we start building before the licence is granted? Yes, and in Kazakhstan's national regime, Uzbekistan and Georgia the application already depends on your software or platform. Live trading still waits for the licence and the exchange membership
• Is the minimum capital money we lose? No, it stays in the company as its own funds. It must stay above the floor for as long as you hold the licence. AIFC investment firms and AIX members must also keep liquid assets, such as cash, worth at least 25% of a year's operating costs
• Can one licence cover all four countries? No, each country licenses its own brokers. A broker licensed in a jurisdiction AFSA treats as broadly equivalent can apply to AFSA for Recognised Non-AIFC Member status and then trade on AIX without a full AFSA licence. That status covers AIX trading only, not other financial services in the AIFC or Kazakhstan