National Day/ Qatar Financial Markets Authority.. Integrity and Transparency in Financial Markets

Doha, December 14 (QNA) - (Integrity and Transparency), two slogans Qatar Financial Markets Authority(QFMA) raises in the capital markets in Qatar, via performing its regulatory functions neutrally, and issuing a set of regulations independently, through an independent body assigned to regulate and supervise the financial markets, and the related activities. In the second half of 2006, it was decided to establish " Qatar Financial Markets Authority " as an independent entity (regulatory and supervisory) to regulate the activities of the capital market in Qatar, including the Doha Securities Market, and the financial services sector relating to securities "companies and individuals", to highlight the ,main role of the authority and which is represented in laying the solid and firm bases for creating a market capital of the State of Qatar to the best international standards, and enabling it to ascend the leading position in the region. With Qatar's celebrations of its "National Day" it comes to mind "Qatar Financial Markets Authority" with its grand achievements it achieved during fiscal year 2011 -2012, where it has achieved several accomplishments, foremost of which the updating and development process of the institutional performance, which represented in the re-building and the formation of the institutional structure of the body, to earn it effectiveness and flexibility to cope with the latest developments in the regional and global financial markets. This of course is carried out on several major themes, interalia: stepping up the level of efficiency of the staff Authority; attracting and retaining the talented efficient cadres, the periodic evaluation of job performance, increasing the Qatarization proportion, developing and updating the technological infrastructure, and developing the business and financial management. It is worth to mention that Qatar Financial Markets Authority is an independent regulatory authority competent to supervise the Qatar Exchange and to organize the activities related to Securities in the Qatari Capital Market. Qatar Financial Markets Authority aims to develop a legal and regulatory environment appropriate for supporting the growth of the Qatari capital in addition to providing an appropriate and safe investment environment for investors and dealers at the securities sector. "The Qatar Financial Markets Authority's (QFMA) staff have been working as well to monitor and oversight of disclosure and transparency processes and the issuance of securities, as well as control over the employees working with companies licensed and controlled by the QFMA in addition to giving licenses to the new financial services companies or the new employees, and following up their commitment to the terms of license. Concening its participation in local events, the Qatar Financial Markets Authority plays its role in training and educating investors, and promoting cooperation with the local, regional and international institutions. Among the most important projects of the Authority is the preparation of the draft system of rules and procedures of merger and acquisitions, according to the best regional and global practices and establishing a system of corporate governance listed in the secondary market, as per requirements of small and medium enterprises, and modifying the governance system of corporate enlisted in the main market, in line with the market development and the needs of investors, in addition to the preparation of sample listing bulletin on investment funds ETF. "The Qatar Financial Markets Authority " is implementing the tripartite agreement with the British Institute CISI, and Qatar Finance and Business Academy (QFBA) on the qualifying , scientific and professional programme for investors and employees at the capital markets, as well as the introduction of concepts of the fast-track procedures for insertion (FAST PATH), and dual listing, and the use of database for reporting and data and information analysis. The (QFMA also cooperates with Qatar University and gets help at the same time of the information technology department to set up an electronic programme to follow up and monitor corporate news automatically. In addition to these activities, there is also a project of applying the authority's services on hardware / iPad / and / iPhone /, so the software is installed in these modern devices, and the enterprise resources project management system (ERP), and the project of customer relationship management system (CRM). This plus the Authority's inner gate or portal project (Intranet), the correspondence management system project, and the automatic texts extraction project in collaboration with Qatar University and linking the website of the Stock Exchange for disaster recovery. It is noted that QFBA is a joint venture between the Qatar Foundation and the Qatar Financial Centre Authority with the intention to create a Qatar-based learning and development organization that delivers pragmatic and innovative financial services education. It targets entry-level to senior executive professionals, instructing them in essential financial disciplines within the banking, asset management, capital markets and insurance sectors. It intends to increase capacity and support the creation of financial services expertise across the financial sector of Qatar (an important aspect of the vision that feeds into the Human Development pillar of Qatar Vision 2030), seeing the transformation of Qatar into a knowledge-based economy. (QNA)