H.E. Abdulla Al Turifi
The Securities and Commodities Authority (SCA) took part in the 12th meeting of the committee of heads of the GCC financial market bodies held in Doha. H.E. Abdulla Al Turifi, SCA CEO, headed the SCA delegation at the meeting that discussed the latest developments in the GCC financial markets and allowed an exchange of views. Also present were heads of the GCC financial market regulatory bodies as well as H.E. Abdullah bin Juma Al Shibli, Assistant Secretary General for Economic Affairs at the GCC General Secretariat.
Al Turifi said that the committee praised the contributions made by SCA and appreciated the package of proposals it presented regarding controls for offering and listing shares of newly incorporated companies according to the best international practices, penalties determined for trading violations, financial independence of bodies, investment and finance sources, and banking financing against mortgage shares. It also praised the SCA experiment in offering professional, specialized training and testing systems for brokers through its training center.
Al Turifi added that committee members also reviewed the report produced by the General Secretariat on the eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) workshop that was held at the Dubai branch office last January. Member bodies emphasized that it was important for the GCC states to adopt and take advantage of this system.
SCA held another workshop attended by member states of the committee of heads of the GCC financial market regulatory bodies. Throughout the workshop, the objectives, functions, and importance of the XBRL system were explained. The SCA experiment in using such system and the resulting advantages were also reviewed.
Committee members were also briefed on the economic decisions made by the GCC Supreme Council in its 35th session, one of which was to continue to serve as a guideline to all uniform rules and principles for the integration of the GCC financial markets, which have already been approved by the Supreme Council, until the uniform rules for such integration are prepared.
Uniform rules for acquisitions and offerings in financial markets
As to the minutes of the last two meetings of the working group on initial public offerings in the GCC financial markets, it was approved to present the draft uniform rules for acquisitions in the GCC markets to the ministerial committee of board chairpersons of the GCC financial market regulatory bodies, which will present it to the ministerial council to receive the Supreme Council approval.
After adding articles on private placement, the final amendments to the uniform rules for share offering in the GCC financial markets were also presented to the ministerial committee of board chairpersons of the GCC financial market regulatory bodies for approval.
Furthermore, approval was given to the final amendments made on the uniform rules for issuing and offering mutual funds and the uniform rules for issuing and offering bonds and sukuk in the GCC markets.
Minutes of the 10th meeting of the working group on supervision and oversight
The committee also reviewed the minutes of the 10th meeting of the working group on supervision and oversight of the GCC financial markets and its follow up report about the uniform rules for the supervision and oversight of trading in the GCC markets. It also reviewed the draft uniform rules for collecting information about suspicious transactions in the GCC markets and studied the electronic supervisory systems that international financial markets have in place. The committee emphasized the importance of implementing the decisions of the ministerial committee in relation to directing working groups on the integration of the GCC financial markets to put the uniform rules in place.
As to the minutes of the 3rd meeting of the working group of training officials in the GCC financial market regulatory bodies, the committee reviewed the minutes, particularly the proposals for training and development programs for 2015 and the training programs in place and the identification of liaison officers in regulatory bodies. The importance of coordination between the General Secretariat and liaison officers of member bodies was also emphasized to make use of the main training programs administered in any member body, in addition to administering joint training programs, and opening joint negotiations with regional and international training institutions.