May 24-26, Central Securities Depository Prague hosted the World Forum of Central Securities Depositories (WFC) where it was announced that the next event will take place in Kazakhstan in 2025. Our country will become the first in Central Asia to organize the large-scale Forum uniting five continents. The event will be held in Almaty.
The WFC is traditionally held once every two years, connecting five regional associations: the Asia-Pacific Central Securities Depository Group (ACG), the Americas' Central Securities Depositories Association (ACSDA), Association of Eurasian Central Securities Depositories (AECSD), European Central Securities Depositories Association (ECSDA), and the Africa & Middle East Depositories Association (AMEDA).
This year the WFC brought together over 135 CSDs, stock exchanges, and clearing organizations from around the world participating in the forum. Among the guests were top managers of central depositories, national banks, representatives of the International Monetary Fund, European Union Central Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, international recordkeeping organizations Clearstream and Euroclear, stock exchanges, and other companies.
During the meeting, participants discussed a range of region-specific issues, which was followed by a global conference focusing on several key areas. These included the long-term vision of industry development, promotion of cross-border investment flows, efficiency of settlements, global post-trading and systemic risk, digital transformation of central securities depositories, and the use of DLT in FMI.
Adil Mukhamejanov, Chairman of KCSD’s Management Board represented Kazakhstan at the event. His participation in the panel session was devoted to the topic of support that countries can provide to develop economies, as well as to create capital markets. The main issue discussed at the session was how the Central Securities Depositories (CSDs) can assist them. The discussion was moderated by Philip Brown, CEO of Clearstream Banking SA.
On the final day of the forum, it was announced that according to the voting results, Kazakhstan will be the next WFC host country. KCSD’s Deputy Chairman Yedil Medeu emphasized that hosting the Forum in Kazakhstan is not only a reason for celebration but also serves as a testament to the country's high credibility.
The WFC is a platform for strengthening cooperation through exchange of experience and best practices. This not only contributes to the development of the industry as a whole but also enables the setting of global trends and improved interaction between financial institutions.
He further added that holding the WFC in Kazakhstan will have a positive effect on the country's role in the international stock market.
Another noteworthy aspect of the event for our country was the election of Yedil Medeu, as Chairman of the WFC Board, marking the first time a representative from Kazakhstan has held this position.
KCSD is a key infrastructure organization of Kazakhstan's financial market in the sphere of post-trading services and has been providing services for more than 25 years. In Kazakhstan's securities market, KCSD acts as a single center for recording ownership rights to securities, settles all on-exchange and over-the-counter transactions and provides local participants with access to international securities settlement systems.
As of April 1, 2023, Kazakhstan has reached one million investors on the stock market with over 1,188,000 brokerage accounts registered in KCSD's nominal holding system.
