#1
SOCIETE GENERALE
RegulatedChinaEst. 1864AMF
Regulation
License
Spread
59.9Score
Five brokers in the WIKILIX records hold a licence from the Astana Financial Services Authority, the regulator of Kazakhstan's Astana International Financial Centre. That is the whole list. AFSA sits at tier 3 on our scale and issues offshore authorisations, so this is a short register rather than a crowded one, and it rewards reading name by name.
| Broker | Score | Opened | Head office | WIKILIX status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SOCIETE GENERALE | 59.6 | 1864 | China | Regulation |
| PRIME CDEX | 54.2 | 1993 | Hong Kong | Regulation |
| WesternFX | 32.7 | 2013 | St Vincent & Grenadines | Offshore |
| TradeEU Global | 21.6 | 2024 | Mauritius | No regulation |
| Neomarkets | 7 | 2020 | Kazakhstan | No regulation |
The scores stretch from 59.6 down to 7, with the middle of the group at 32.7. Two of the five, SOCIETE GENERALE and PRIME CDEX, carry our clean regulation label and hold licences from several stronger authorities alongside AFSA, including the tier-1 Securities and Futures Commission. The other three do not. WesternFX holds an AFSA licence and nothing else on record, while both TradeEU Global and Neomarkets sit under a no-regulation status despite the AFSA entry.
What sits behind an AIFC licence
The Astana International Financial Centre runs on its own rulebook, modelled on English common law rather than Kazakh national law, and AFSA is the body that authorises firms to operate inside it. A licence there permits specific regulated activities, such as dealing in investments or arranging deals, under those AIFC rules. It does not by itself tell you which products a firm may sell you or which countries it may accept clients from. Those permissions are listed against each firm on AFSA's own public register, and they are worth reading before any deposit. You can search a name or licence number at publicreg.myafsa.com.
Five firms, five different home countries
Only one of these brokers, Neomarkets, is actually headquartered in Kazakhstan. The rest are registered elsewhere and hold the AFSA licence as one entry among several. SOCIETE GENERALE is a China-registered name that opened in 1864, PRIME CDEX is based in Hong Kong and dates to 1993, WesternFX is in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and TradeEU Global, the youngest here at a 2024 opening, is in Mauritius. Four of the five hold licences from two or more authorities, so the AFSA entry is usually part of a wider set rather than the only thing standing behind the firm.
A licence is not a clean bill of health
Three of these five carry a WIKILIX status other than plain regulation: WesternFX is marked offshore, and TradeEU Global and Neomarkets are both marked no regulation. That label reflects the wider picture we hold on each firm, not a judgement about AFSA itself. An offshore licence from a tier-3 authority offers weaker recourse than an onshore tier-1 one, and where a firm pairs a thin licence set with a low score, as Neomarkets does at 7, the AFSA badge should carry very little weight in your decision.
Checks worth making before you fund an account
- Confirm the firm's exact AFSA permissions on the public register, since a licence to arrange deals is not the same as a licence to hold your money.
- Check whether the entity you are contracting with is the AIFC-registered one or an offshore sister company, as the two can share a brand but not a regulator.
- Read the leverage on offer against the licence: WesternFX and PRIME CDEX both advertise up to 1:500, far above what an onshore regulator would allow.
- Look up any second or third regulator a firm claims, because on this list the stronger licences do more work than the AFSA one.
5brokers on this list
Researched & ranked by the Wikilix team
- #2
PREMIER Q SECURITIES LTD
RegulatedHong KongEst. 1993MISA
RegulationLicenseSpread55.8Score - #3
Zemblanco Investments Ltd
RegulatedCyprusEst. 2014CySEC
RegulationLicenseSpread46.3Score - #4
Infra Capital Limited
RegulatedMauritiusEst. 2018FSC
RegulationLicenseSpread39.0Score - #5
Neomarkets Limited
No RegulationKazakhstanEst. 2020AFSA
RegulationLicenseSpread28.0Score
This register updates as our records on each firm change. If a broker gains or loses an AFSA licence, it joins or leaves this list without anyone rewriting the page, and the status labels move with the wider picture we hold. What it will not do is tell you a firm is safe to deposit with. That is a judgement only the current permissions on AFSA's own register, and each firm's own terms, can settle.
Because four of these five hold licences beyond AFSA, the more useful next step for most readers is the register of whichever stronger authority a firm claims. You can move to the VFSC register or the SCA register, both of which share a name with this list, and the MISA register is the one traders weighing offshore options tend to read alongside it. For the two long-established names at the top, the list of brokers operating 50 years or more shows how unusual a genuinely old firm is.
Whichever you open, verify the licence number on the regulator's own site before you move any money.
Frequently Asked Questions
Frequently asked questions
Answers from the Wikilix research team about this ranking.
Most Popular Questions
It is our own recorded view of each firm's regulatory standing, shown in the table. Two brokers here carry a regulation label, meaning their licensing looks clean; one is marked offshore; and two are marked no regulation despite the AFSA entry. The label reflects the wider picture on each firm, not a judgement about AFSA itself, so read it next to the licence set.
This list cannot tell you that. It is built from the licences each firm holds and where it is headquartered, not from the countries it accepts clients from, which is information we do not carry. Check each broker's own terms and the permissions on the AFSA register, since a licence to operate inside the AIFC does not mean a firm may onboard you.
Only Neomarkets is headquartered in Kazakhstan, where the AIFC sits. The other four hold their AFSA licence as one entry among several and are registered elsewhere: China, Hong Kong, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Mauritius. A firm can be licensed inside the AIFC without being a Kazakh company, so the domicile and the licence tell you two different things.
SOCIETE GENERALE, which our records date to 1864, by a wide margin. PRIME CDEX is next, opening in 1993. At the other end, TradeEU Global only opened in 2024. Age is not the same as safety, but a firm with a long recorded history has had more time to build, or lose, a reputation you can check.
An AFSA licence authorises named activities under the AIFC rules, and those do not automatically include retail forex. Public guidance from the authority indicates it does not license forex trading from within the AIFC, so a firm marketing forex under an AFSA badge is worth checking closely. Confirm exactly what any firm is permitted to do on the AFSA public register before you deposit.
On its own, no. AFSA sits at tier 3 on our scale and issues offshore authorisations under the AIFC rulebook, which means weaker recourse than an onshore tier-1 licence from a body like the SFC or FCA. It can still matter as part of a wider licence set, which is why the two firms here that also hold tier-1 licences score far above the rest.
Five, and that is the complete list as of today. AFSA is a tier-3 offshore regulator, so it authorises far fewer of the firms we track than an authority like the FCA or ASIC. If a broker gains or loses an AFSA licence, this count changes with it, so the number here reflects what we currently hold on record.
Five brokers in our records hold an AFSA licence: SOCIETE GENERALE, PRIME CDEX, WesternFX, TradeEU Global and Neomarkets. SOCIETE GENERALE and PRIME CDEX also carry our clean regulation status and hold several stronger licences alongside AFSA. The other three sit under an offshore or no-regulation label, so the AFSA badge should be read with care.