MENA Funds Insight
Middle East and North Africa Funds Newsletter
to provide you with an insight on MENA's Fund activity

Executive Summary

June 2012 was marked by a series of regulatory initiatives in the GCC region.

Index-provider MSCI, postponed for the fourth time a decision on whether to upgrade the UAE and Qatar from frontier to emerging market status. As soon as MSCI announced its Annual Market Classification Review, the UAE's Securities and Commodities Authority began work on new transparency rules aimed at encouraging foreigners to invest in the UAE market.

In this edition, Tariq Qashiq, deputy head of asset management at Al Mal Capital, gives us more insight into this initiative.

Saudi Arabia too has been on the MSCI radar to be included in the frontier or emerging markets category, depending on the level of market accessibility.

UAE investment funds regulation: The need to safeguard investors' wealth

The absence of clear and coherent laws and regulations opens the door wide for companies taking on more risk, breaking the rules and putting clients' wealth at risk. Laws and regulation need to be reformed to reflect best practice while being practical in terms of recent developments.

Not only will regulation bring in discipline, but it will also open a dialogue between investment companies and regulators - an important building block to improve investor confidence. I believe the new regulations in the UAE, which encompass 45 articles, will usher in stricter ruling; however, the latter could hinder industry growth.

The draft regulations aim to govern all matters relating to local investment funds and the promotion of foreign funds within the UAE. However, a few obstacles remain before final regulations will be implemented.

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