Middle-east Arab News Opinion | Asharq Al-awsat

Saudi Arabia Establishes Specialized Department to Protect Stock Market Investors | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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Riyadh- In a move aimed at raising the level of investor protection in the Saudi stock market, the Saudi Capital Market Authority (CMA) has decided to develop a specialized department to protect the investors.

The department will receive investors’ complaints and handle them, and it will also receive reports of violations of the Capital Market Law and its executive regulations.

This important step follows statements made by Head of CMA Mohammed al-Quwaiz early July when he assured Asharq Al-Awsat that the protection of shareholders’ rights is the authority’s main concern.

He pointed out back then that the list of collective action that is being worked on will reduce the cost of individual investor’s litigation costs and the effort through the formation of a group of shareholders who have suffered damage in order to pursue the person who has caused this damage.

In response to these important statements, the CMA has introduced a specialized department for the protection of the investor, which handles the tasks of receiving and handling investors’complaints and receiving reports of violations of the Capital Market Law and its executive regulations.

In a press statement Wednesday, the CMA said that this step is complementary to the authority’s efforts exerted in the financial leadership program through one of its main axes.

It enhances confidence in the financial market, which protects investors from unfair practices, maintains the integrity of the market, develops methods of bodies and entities involved in securities trading in addition to developing procedures to reduce the risks associated with securities transactions.

“This department aims mainly to develop complaints and communications procedures to raise the level of speed and efficiency and end it in accordance with the legal methods,” said the CMA in their statement.

This method is electronic and enables applicants to complain to the authority to complete their complaints easily as all procedures are completed automatically.

The authority shall be electronically linked to all market participants: the complainant, the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul), the Depository Center Company, the General Secretariat of the Committee for Resolution of Securities Disputes (CRSD), the authorized persons and the companies listed on the Capital Market.