The Emirates Securities and Commodities Authority (SCA) has participated in the first meeting of the GCC Committee of Heads of Arab Securities Regulators. H.E. Abdullah Al-Turifi, SCA Chief Executive Officer, represented his outfit at the meeting which was held at the General Secretariat of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in the Saudi Arabian capital, Riyadh.
The meeting was part of the efforts aimed at achieving better integration of the GCC securities markets, unified market policies and regulations in implementation of GCC Ministerial Resolution issued during the recent GCC Foreign Ministers Council meeting which was held in Jeddah last May.
In a statement at the end of the meeting, Al-Turifi said the committee had discussed and adopted most of the articles of the SCA-initiative, which calls for the integration of GCC securities markets according to the timetable referred to the committee by the Ministerial Committee, adding that the SCA initiative – which was proposed in accordance with the directives of H.E. Sultan bin Saeed Al-Mansoori, Minister of Economy and Board Chairman of the SCA, touched on a number of issues dealing with the adoption of common securities market policies and regulations, studying the possibility of issuing unified license, subscriptions and listing for public joint stock companies, innovating common regulations for securities market-related issues in member states and expanding the investor base on the markets by encouraging the setting up of public joint stock companies, boosting GCC securities markets elements and factors, activating corporate governance regulations and setting up for these purposes working groups which will make recommendations in this regard to the committee.
The meeting followed an agreement reached by the ministerial committee of the board chairpersons of market regulators of GCC member states during its first meeting held last May, during which the meeting deliberated on the SCA's proposal on the integration of securities markets of member states. The meeting urged member states to refer their proposals in this regard to the GCC Securities Regulators Board Chairpersons' Committee for review and recommendations, which would subsequently be referred to the GCC Ministerial Committee for action.
The committee also reviewed proposals by the Kuwait Securities Market and by the GCC General Secretariat on mechanisms for achieving integration among GCC securities markets. Following deliberation on the matter, the committee agreed to set up six working groups, including a registration, listing and disclosure rules working group, initial offerings and subscriptions working group, networking and clearance working group, financial tools working group, market supervision and monitoring working group and market institutions working group. The tasks of each working group were clearly defined to make each group work within the areas of its jurisdiction and specialization. All the groups shall refer their recommendations to the GCC Securities Regulators Board Chairpersons' Committee, which would deliberate on them before referring them to the Ministerial Committee of Board Chairpersons of Securities Regulators of Members States for final approval.
The meeting agreed that the registration, listing and disclosure rules working group and the initial offerings and subscriptions working group should be summoned first to hold two separate meetings each before October to propose their plan of action and timetable for executing their tasks.
Members of the committee agreed that the major task of the permanent ministerial committee, which consists of board chairpersons of securities regulators of member states, according to the ministerial resolution, must focus on unifying the securities markets policies and regulations as a vehicle towards successful integration of those markets in order to meet the requirements of the GCC markets in a way that would allow the citizens of any GCC member country to own and trade in stocks and other financial tools in any market of member states.
They also agreed that the best ways to achieve those objectives include unifying the rules governing the floating of company's shares for subscriptions and the listing of companies on the markets, unifying the regulations of settlement and clearance, unifying the standards of publishing and disclosure and corporate governance rules, unifying the rules governing financial services providers (brokerage companies, market consultants, coverage agents and market makers), studying the possibility of unifying the requirements and bye-laws governing the issuance and diversifying of financial tools listed on the markets and the best way to increase investment and liquidity on those markets, hence the need to set up the six working group mentioned earlier above.
It's worth noting here that the GCC ministerial council adopted last May a resolution setting up a permanent ministerial committee, which consists of board chairpersons of securities regulators of member states. The committee has been tasked with unifying the securities markets policies and regulations as a vehicle towards successful integration of those markets, in implementation of the GCC economic agreement and related GCC Supreme Council Resolutions.