Ainur Amangeldyevna Akhmetova

Ainur Akhmetova is the Managing Partner and CEO of AKHMETOVA Law Firm Limited, a business-focused legal practice in Kazakhstan. She has been named Banking & Finance Law Expert of the Year in Kazakhstan at the Corporate INTL Global Awards 2026, recognising her specialist expertise in one of the most technically demanding fields of commercial law in a rapidly developing market.

A modern Kazakh law firm

According to the firm, AKHMETOVA Law Firm was established in 2020 with the aim of delivering a new level of quality in legal services in Kazakhstan, built around business-oriented solutions. The firm operates from offices in both Astana and Almaty, the country's principal political and commercial centres. Its practice spans corporate law and legal audit, tax law, transaction structuring and support, litigation, bankruptcy, and specialist areas including cryptocurrency regulation, Islamic financing and transactions connected with the Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC).

Banking and finance law sits at the heart of this offering. It encompasses the regulation of banks and financial institutions, lending and security arrangements, capital markets and investment transactions, and the structuring of financing across borders. In a market such as Kazakhstan, which has undertaken significant financial-sector reform and has developed the AIFC as a distinct jurisdiction with its own English-language, common-law-based framework, banking and finance work requires an adviser who can navigate both the national legal system and these newer, specialised regimes.

Ainur Akhmetova's expertise

The firm records that Ainur Akhmetova serves as CEO, director and money laundering reporting officer, and that she has more than 18 years of legal experience specialising in banking, financing, investment and corporate law. Her educational background is notably international: the firm reports that she holds a Master of Laws (LLM) in Banking and Financial Law from Boston University, alongside a bachelor's degree in finance and a bachelor's degree in international law from Kazakh institutions. This combination of finance and legal training is particularly well suited to banking and finance practice, where an understanding of the commercial and economic substance of a transaction is as important as command of the applicable law.

The firm also highlights her engagement with the development of Kazakhstan's financial infrastructure, noting her participation in the creation of the Astana International Financial Centre and related constitutional amendments, as well as her anti-money-laundering and counter-financing-of-terrorism credentials. Involvement in the establishment of a major financial centre reflects a practitioner whose expertise extends beyond individual transactions to the design of the frameworks within which those transactions take place, an unusual vantage point that allows her to advise clients not only on how the rules apply but on the policy thinking behind them.

Serving a developing financial market

Kazakhstan is the largest economy in Central Asia and has positioned itself as a regional hub for finance and investment, particularly through the AIFC. Businesses and investors operating in this environment require advisers who can bridge domestic Kazakh law, the distinct AIFC regime, and the expectations of international financial counterparties. A firm that combines banking and finance expertise with capabilities in corporate, tax and transactional work, and that is fluent in newer areas such as cryptocurrency regulation and Islamic finance, is well placed to serve that demand.

Recognition at the Corporate INTL Global Awards 2026

As Kazakhstan continues to develop its financial sector and to attract cross-border investment, the role of specialist banking and finance counsel becomes increasingly important. Winning Banking & Finance Law Expert of the Year in Kazakhstan at the Corporate INTL Global Awards 2026 recognises Ainur Akhmetova's depth of experience, her international training and her contribution to the country's financial and legal infrastructure. For banks, investors and businesses operating in Kazakhstan, her leadership of AKHMETOVA Law Firm offers specialist, business-focused advice in a market of growing strategic significance.