Nasdaq, Inc. (Nasdaq:NDAQ) and Astana International Financial Centre JSC (AIFC) announced a new, significant agreement. Nasdaq has been selected to power Kazakhstan’s nascent stock exchange, the AIFC Exchange. The exchange is targeted to launch in late-2017 and will initially trade equities and fixed income with other asset classes for future phases.

Within the framework of the agreement, the Nasdaq Matching Engine will be implemented and go through several rigorous testing and acceptance stages before official deployment. The Nasdaq Machine Engine is the most widely-used matching engine in the world that combines extraordinary performance with extensive functionality to cost-effectively meet current and future business and performance requirements. Once the AIFC Exchange goes live, Nasdaq will provide continual maintenance and technical support.

Kairat Kelimbetov, Governor of Astana International Financial Centre, commented: “Nasdaq’s matching engine is considered the best trading platform globally, and is differentiated by the breadth and depth of its offering, security and functionality. The AIFC Authority is pleased to cooperate with Nasdaq in creating the country’s exchange infrastructure.”

Lars Ottersgård, Executive Vice President, Head of Market Technology, Nasdaq commented:  “Nasdaq is honored to contribute to the new ‘state-of-the-art’ exchange infrastructure being built by AIFC Authority for the Kazakhstan and related international markets. By leveraging our Nasdaq Financial Framework, the AIFC Exchange will be running on ground breaking technology, which will allow for standardized and unified operations, coupled with robust flexibility to boost its competitive proposition in a rapidly evolving international marketplace. We look forward to partnering and supporting AIFC in this exciting new development.”

Nasdaq’s exchange technology, including trading, clearing, CSD and market surveillance systems, is in operation in more than 90 marketplaces across the Americas, Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa, the Middle East and the Caribbean.

About AIFC

In December 2015 President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev signed the Constitutional law “On the Astana International Financial Centre” (AIFC). The aim of the AIFC is to form a leading international centre of financial services. For the first time in post-Soviet region Common law framework will be introduced in the AIFC. English shall be the official language of the AIFC.

The objectives of the AIFC are to attract investment into the economy through the establishment of an attractive environment for investment in the financial services, to develop local capital markets, to ensure their integration with the international capital market, and to develop markets for insurance and banking services and for Islamic financing in the Republic of Kazakhstan.