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Qatar Exchange today won the very prestigious “Exchange of the Year” Award for the Middle East from Global Investor. The announcement was made at the Global Investor Summit and Awards that took place in Doha at the St. Regis Hotel. The award ceremony was crowned with awarding QE the title of the best stock exchange in the MNEA region.
Mr. Rashid bin Ali Al-Mansoori, CEO Of Qatar Exchange, received the award and expressed his delight to winning this award and for considering Qatar Exchange the best exchange in the region despite the strong competition in the capital market and financial sector.
Mr. Al-Mansoori stated that “we are very proud to be recognized for all of our efforts and contributions in developing the capital market and supporting the economy in line with Qatar’s National Vision 2030. Going forward we remain as committed as ever to improving our standards and policies in line with the best international practices in order to provide investors with quality services and diversified products.”
“We are so proud of QE and all that it has accomplished over the past year. QE is a sound and stable financial institution that benefits from strong regulation. We offer different investment opportunities for our investors whether they are Qatari or non-Qatari, retail or foreign. This award highlights the fact that the Qatar Exchange is a significant player in the regional exchange space. Winning this award means being recognized for all the hard work we have achieved and it makes our drive and determination to continue with even more success that much greater”, Mr. Al-Mansoori added.
Each year Global Investor honours the top firms in the capital markets sector from across the MENA region. This is the second time that Qatar Exchange has won the “Exchange of the Year” Award, the first time being in 2010 when the summit was held in Dubai. Each year investors are contacted to nominate the stock exchange in the MENA region that they feel is most deserving of the title best exchange in the MENA region.
The criteria for voting relate to significant achievements and accomplishments and the winning exchange has to demonstrate that they are making a concerted effort to add to the development of the capital markets in their respective countries.
Global Investor bestowed this honour on QE as they recognized the significant improvements and changes that QE has been witness with a view to supporting the capital market and support the local companies.
Speaking on the Panel titled “GCC Stock Exchange Improvements”, Mohsin Mujataba, Product & Market Development Director of Qatar Exchange noted that over the course of the past year, QE has enhanced the quality and depth of the market. Some highlights of these achievements include: successful implementation of the DVP process in order to enhance the efficiency of the settlement process; opening up the market to allow banks to re-enter as brokers; launching an ambitious initiative aiming at allowing investors to have their dividends directly deposited in their bank accounts; listing short term T Bills which will attract the attention of banks, financial institutions as well as investors, and the preparations to launch government bonds.
QE has also worked to address the liquidity challenges by introducing securities lending and borrowing and liquidity provision schemes. It also launched the Venture Market, which is a junior market dedicated to the SME industry and issued new Indices to offer greater choices to investors.”
