Speaking at the conference the Chairman of the Capital Market Authority (CMA), Mohammed El-Kuwait said the CMA was continuing to make huge advancements and highlighted the importance of new capital markets laws recently approved by the Council of Ministers: “These new laws will have two priorities, firstly to protect investors through improved mechanisms for compensation, strengthening the independence of judicial committees, increasing the scope of reporting, rewarding those who report violations and strengthening penalties to deter violators, and secondly to enhance the capital market by modifying financial organization through the introduction of a depository center and the creation of new categories including the establishment of a ‘clearing house’ to create a new derivatives market.” He also outlined how judicial procedures in the capital market have been strengthened: “Prosecution processing time to deal with financial disputes has been reduced from 24 to 10 months, with the aim of a further reduction to 6 months. Many other reforms have also been completed including the automation of the judicial processes with everything to do with a claim now dealt with electronically and we are also moving towards the introduction of group claims which will also help to speed up the process.” El-Kuwait added that there will continue to be a range of positive indicators contributing to the growth of the capital market: “There has been an increase of 49% of investors in closed-end funds, an increase in the index by 6% compared to 2018 and foreign cash flows in the capital market have reached SAR 76 billion.” Finally, he told the audience that he was proud of the Kingdom's accession to the international indices which he forecasts would contribute to a continued diversifying investor base, which would in turn enhance the stability of the capital market in addition to strengthening the principle of disclosure and injecting liquidity. --SPA 21:39 LOCAL TIME 18:39 GMT 0028 www.spa.gov.sa/w1174415