The Arab Federation of Exchanges Annual Conference ended on Thursday 28 April, 2016 which was hosted by Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) under the patronage of the Prime Minister H.E Dr. Abdullah Ensour over two days 27&28 April, 2016. More than 400 participants attended the conference from local, regional, and international exchanges, regulatory bodies of the financial markets, brokerage firms, investment fund managers, investment banks, selective high net worth individuals, economic journalists, research firms, corporate/listed companies, rating agencies, technical associations, and banks.
The CEO of the ASE Mr. Nader Azar declared that the conference plays an important role in gathering the leaders of the Arab financial markets with regional and international experts. It also encompasses all stakeholders within the equities field where Arab stock exchanges got the opportunity to meet and promote their listed companies to the potential international and regional investors. Mr. Azar stressed that the conference aims to develop Arab Stock Exchanges and promote integration among them to increase liquidity and to develop the IPO process within the Arab financial markets and increase the awareness of technological advancements in the equities field.
Azar added that more than 35 local and international experts representing the most important institution that works in financial services participated in the panel discussions. They also reviewed the most important trends, challenges and opportunities facing the global financial markets besides more than 30 financial markets and global financial companies participated in panel discussion as: NASDAQ, S&P Dow Jones Indices, MSCI, World Federation of Exchanges, Thomas Murray, Bloomberg, Thomson Reuters, OCC, ISC, EBRD, Standard Chartered, HSBC, Blackrock, DLA Piper (US), Weild&Co.
A number of important panels that related to financial markets were discussed as: Capital formation and economic growth, Financial services institutions, our gate way for internationals, classifications, ratings and reforms in Arab region, presentations on XBRL, How internationals view the Arab Markets?, International and Arab markets are at a crucial point, what are the expectations?, the role of media in the exchange industry.
The conference concluded on the importance of increasing and enhancing cooperation among the Arab capital markets to meet the challenges they face and to take advantage of the expected investment opportunities.
In addition to the importance of the development of the Arab capital markets according to the best international practices in this field to improve the services provided to all sides under the competition faced by regional and international financial markets, and attracting more local, regional and international investments.
It is worth mentioning that the presidency of the Federation has been transferred to the ASE as of April 26, 2016 for one year.