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Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) is hosting this year the Third Working Committee Meeting for the Organization of Islamic Conference’s (OIC) Member States’ Stock Exchanges Forum taking place from April 27th to 28th in the capital Abu Dhabi.
The annual event is dedicated this year to discuss the Islamic financial instruments tradable on exchanges and other liquidity management financial instruments as well as the Islamic Repo and the collateralization possibilities, the creation of an OIC index and awareness and investor education about Islamic financial markets.
The meeting includes presentations, speeches and workshops by a number prominent figures including Mr. Huseyin Erkan, Istanbul Stock Exchange’s (ISE) Chairman and Chief Executive Officer and chairman of the Working Committee, Mr. Jonathan Cooper, Managing Director for FTSE Middle East and Africa, Mr. Rodney Fernandes, Standard and Poors’ Vice President for EMEA region, Mr. Jim Leggate and Mr. Richard Souri from MSCI.
“Hosting this annual event in Abu Dhabi this year reflects our efforts to become one of the region’s financial hubs and the ever-growing importance of Islamic finance giving the increasing popularity for Islamic financial instruments, especially sukoks in the recent years,” commented Rashed Al Baloushi, ADX’s Deputy Chief Executive.
“Some of the issues being discussed in this year’s meeting are of paramount importance to us, especially the establishment of an OIC index as well as the methods for enhancing investor awareness and knowledge about the Islamic financial world,” he added.
Cooperation Agreements:During the event ADX is to sign two Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) with ISE and Takasbank, its settlement and custody bank. The agreements pertain to enhancing the scope of cooperation between ADX and ISE through a framework of exchanging information and expertise in areas such as regulations and operations. The memorandums also stipulate mutual assistance with each party pledging best of efforts to fulfill this cooperation framework.
“Turkey is among the leading emerging markets, while the UAE has been recently admitted to the club by FTSE, and accordingly it is only natural that we seek enhancing our cooperation. Being both Islamic countries, one can only expect that such cooperation can yield a very fruitful outcome in relation to this promising field of finance,” Al Baloushi explained.
ISE was established in December 1985, and is the only securities exchange in Turkey set with the purpose of providing trading in stocks, exchange traded funds, government bonds, Treasury bills, corporate bonds, money market instruments (repo/reverse repo), revenue-sharing certificates, real estate certificates and foreign securities.
The MoU with ISE sets a well-defined cooperation framework for the two parties aiming at facilitating the development of channels of communication and to foster the continuous relationship for the respective benefit of the securities markets in both countries.
The scope of cooperation includes capital markets related information exchange, as well as technical assistance and employees exchange schemes through the secondment of staff to enhance mutual understanding for each party’s activities.
