Opening bell at DFM marks the start of World Investor Week 2019 events
“Events held as part of this week aim to promote concepts related to investor rights and to educate investors about their rights and obligations”, Obaid Al Zaabi
“DFM is the first exchange in the world to ring market-opening bell to mark the start of this week’s events”, Essa Kazim
Events held as part of the World Investor Week 2019 kicked off Sunday at the trading floor of the Dubai Financial Market (DFM). H.E. Dr. Obaid Al Zaabi, CEO of the Securities and Commodities Authority (SCA), and H.E. Essa Kazim, DFM Chairman, rang the opening bell, along with a number of SCA and DFM officials, to mark the start of this week’s events.
Following the opening bell, Dr. Al Zaabi conducted open interviews with traders gathered in the trading floor, responded to their queries, and discussed the proposals that were put forward. This comes in response to directives from H.H. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister of the UAE, and Ruler of Dubai, to interact with the public out on the field and to identify and respond to their needs.
“The events of this week aim to enhance the awareness of investors, especially when it comes to maintaining their rights, and to identify the role supervisory authorities and financial markets play in protecting them. This is achieved through the combined efforts of the authorities supervising securities and commodities markets in IOSCO member states and the use of a wide range of means of communication, media channels, and digital media”, Dr. Al Zaabi said.
For his part, Kazim said “as part of the efforts to implement DFM’s Sustainability Strategic Plan 2025 and to complement our efforts to support global sustainable development goals, it is our great pleasure to be the first exchange in the world to ring the opening bell to mark the start of the World Investor Week 2019”. “We have been always committed to building bridges of cooperation with the relevant international bodies, most notably the IOSCO, the World Federation of Exchanges, as well as SCA”, he added. “Taking part in this initiative reflects the keen interest of the parties involved in mobilizing efforts to enhance investor awareness and promote financial literacy among investors”, Kazim concluded.
The events—held in collaboration with DFM and the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX)—included other educational activities, such as two awareness-raising workshops that will be held next Wednesday and delivered by experts specialized in financial market legislation. SCA announced a contest on its social media accounts on the first day of the campaign and has been actively publishing daily awareness messages in newspapers and on social media platforms. It has also been making posts on social media accounts about the rights of investors when dealing with financial services companies.
It is worth noting that SCA is an active member of IOSCO, an international standard-setter for securities regulation. Its CEO is Vice Chairman of the IOSCO Board and Chair of the Growth and Emerging Markets (GEM) Committee. The widespread admiration that SCA won within IOSCO is a mark of the robustness of the legislative and supervisory frameworks of the country’s financial markets, which will positively affect the level of confidence of local and foreign investors alike and will enhance the attractiveness of the country’s markets to investors from abroad.