UASA’S 17th ANNUAL MEETING

The 17th annual meeting of the Union of Arab Securities Authorities (UASA) Board was hosted by the Capital Market Authority of Saudi Arabia (CMA) on the 1st of May 2023. The Board discussed the annual report of 2022 and the suggested work plan for 2023 in addition to several other issues related to Arab Capital Markets, especially with regards to enhancing cooperation and coordination among them, and the UASA’s strategic plan. The UASA’s financial statements were also approved during the meeting.

The opening session began with a speech by the host authority delivered by His Excellency Mr. Khaled Al-Hamoud, member of the Board of the Saudi Capital Market Authority, and the speech of the chairman of the Union delivered by His Excellency Sheikh Abdullah bin Salem Al-Salmi, Chairman of the Capital Market Authority of the Sultanate of Oman, and the speech of the Secretary General delivered by His Excellency Mr. Jalil Tarif. It is worth mentioning that His Excellency Mr. Khaled Al-Hamoud, member of the Board of the Saudi Capital Market Authority, received the presidency of the Union for its seventeenth session.

During the meeting, the General Secretariat memos were reviewed regarding the work of the working groups in charge of implementing the initiatives of the UASA’s strategic plan for the years 2021-2025, which included various areas such as developing capital markets, mitigating risks, supporting liquidity and sustainability, financial technology, cyber risks, investor education and awareness and enhancing financial inclusion. The Board also reviewed the memo of the General Secretariat regarding the formation of these working groups related to the implementation of the initiatives of the strategic plan, where the Board decided to assign to the UASA’s General Secretariat to address the members of the Union and nominate representatives for the working groups as well as provide the members of the Union with the tasks required to be implemented to complete the work related to the third year of the UASA’s strategic plan and the additional tasks proposed by the members of the Board.

The Secretary-General of the Union reviewed the work progress of the working groups tasked with implementing the initiatives of the Union’s strategic plan, which included several pillars, the most important of which are developing capital markets, facing risks, supporting liquidity and sustainability, educating investors, promoting financial inclusion, financial technology and facing cyber risks. The Board reviewed the study of financing small, medium, and micro enterprises and the presentation submitted by the working group in charge to develop capital markets, confront risks, support liquidity and sustainability, where the Board instructed the work group and the General Secretariat of the Union to take UASA’s members suggestions and comments on the study before publishing it on UASA’s website. The Board also reviewed the study of the rules and principles of sustainability in non-banking financial markets and the presentation submitted by the work team in this field.

The Board reviewed the General Secretariat memo regarding the issuance of the guidelines on investor rights and the presentation submitted by the investor education and awareness and promoting financial inclusion working group. The Board also reviewed the memo regarding the issuance of the guiding principles on the uses of artificial intelligence and machine learning, and the presentation submitted by the Financial Technology and Cyber Risks working group. The Board decided to adopt these guidelines and commended the efforts made in this field. The Secretary General of the Union also reviewed the memo on preparing a model for assessing cyber risks and measuring the commitment of entities subject to members’ oversight, which was prepared by the Union’s General Secretariat in cooperation with the Financial Technology and Cyber Risks working group. The Union’s General Secretariat was assigned to share this model with the members of the UASA to take the suitable suggestions in this regard.


The Board approved two memorandums of understanding and assigned the Secretary General to sign them on behalf of the Union. The first was with the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment (CISI) and the other was with the Moroccan Capital Market Authority (AMMC).

The Secretary General presented what has been accomplished with regards to the professional training programs that were implemented during the year 2022, achieving many training programs. The Board also reviewed the General Secretariat memo regarding training programs for the year 2023 where they took note of these programs and stressed the importance and the benefit of its contents for Union members and other related regulatory parties.

The members of the Union reviewed their latest legislative and regulatory developments and the most important events in the year 2022, as well as the most important future projects in the Arab capital markets.