Wednesday 25 / December / 2024
Muscat: Confirming its endeavour towards joining the legislative, supervisory and regulatory efforts related to the capital market sector in the Arab region, the Sultanate, represented by the Capital Market Authority (CMA), participated in the 17th meeting of the Board of the Union of Arab Securities Authorities held in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, on Monday, May 1.
The Sultanate’s delegation was chaired by Sheikh Abdullah bin Salem Al Salmi, Executive President of the Capital Market Authority.
The meeting was held within the efforts exerted among member states to enhance cooperation to upgrade the legislative and regulatory levels of Arab financial markets to achieve fairness, competence and transparency, and to work to unify the efforts to reach effective levels of surveillance over the transactions in the markets, in addition to discussing a mechanism for encountering the challenges, changes and developments on the regional and international arenas.
The opening session commenced with the speech of the President of the current session (host), Khaled Al-Hamoud, a member of the Board of Directors of the Saudi Capital Market Authority, the speech of the President of the Union for the sixteenth session, Al Salmi and the speech of the General Secretariat delivered by the Secretary-General of the Union, Jalil Tarif.
Al Salmi, head of the Sultanate’s delegation, pointed out the developments and events in the year 2022, which were reflected in the performance of global financial markets that were affected by the geopolitical changes resulting from the Russian-Ukrainian war and its repercussions on various global economies, as well as the continuing effects of the crisis resulting from the outbreak of the coronavirus.
Al Salmi said in a statement, "The Arab regulators were able, during the year 2022, in cooperation with the financial markets and governments, to work to overcome the impact of the repercussions of various changes and crises in financial markets."
He added the markets continued, during 2022, to achieve significant achievements in the areas of supervision, updating legislation, regulation and enforcement and setting appropriate frameworks and mechanisms to enhance their regulatory capabilities and developing rules for transparency, disclosure, governance, education and awareness to ensure the stability and balance of the financial markets.
The member authorities have also been keen to take tangible steps in the areas of development, modernisation, skills development, and upgrading the financial systems that govern their business in line with best international practices and standards, as well as taking the necessary measures to encourage the use of financial technology to serve the capital markets.
He added, “The year 2022, which was the second year of the Union’s strategic plan 2021-2025, witnessed important milestones in the framework of implementing the goals and initiatives of the plan. The members of the Union consolidated their presence in the International Organisation of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) with four seats on the board of directors of the organisation including the office of Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of the organisation and the presidency of the Growth and Emerging Markets Committee (GEMC), which is the largest committee of the organisation, as well as the presidency of the Africa and Middle East Regional Committee (AMERC) in addition to the office of Vice Chairman of the committee. The past year witnessed close cooperation with several Arab, regional and international institutions."
The board discussed the Union's annual report for the year 2022 and the most important achievements made during the second year of the strategic plan 2021-2025, in addition to reviewing the status of microfinancing. The board also reviewed the study on the rules and principles of sustainability in non-banking financial markets, in addition to issuing a guiding document on investor rights.
The meeting also discussed the issuance of guiding principles on the uses of artificial intelligence and machine learning, and the signing of a memorandum of understanding with the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment (CISI).
