Title: Press Release: The Capital Markets Authority in its Fourteenth Annual Report: Achievements and Aspirations

Kuwait, July 29, 2025 - The Capital Markets Authority (CMA) announced the issuance of its fourteenth annual report for the financial year (2024/2025), in which it presented an overview of its tasks implemented during that financial year in its various areas of work: legislative, regulatory, supervisory, awareness, and media, and the areas related to external cooperation: local, regional, and international, and the regulation of its internal work environment. The report also presented the CMA’s visions for the upcoming years, particularly the remaining initiatives and projects within its current strategy.
Legal Entitlement

Moreover, it should be noted that Article (25) of the CMA Law No. 7 of 2010 stipulated that: “The Authority shall, within 120 days after the end of every financial year, present to the Competent Minister an annual report on its activities, work and achievements in the growth and development of the market during the completed year, including the Authority’s financial accounts and the auditor’s report”. This Article is a legal entitlement on the CMA that required it to prepare its annual report by the end of each financial year within the period specified by Law, which the CMA regularly conducts since the early years of its establishment.

Tifouni: CMA’s Strategy is its Road Map
The CMA’s fourteenth annual report, comprising more than one hundred and fifty pages, is the first annual report issued during the term of the current Board of Commissioners that began its duties last April. It began with a message by Mr. Emad Ahmad Ali Tifouni -Chairman of the CMA Board of Commissioners-, in which he highlighted the CMA's notable achievements in the recent financial year according to the three pillars of its current strategy (Capital Markets development, Cooperation and Communication, and Institutional Enablement), and noted that the general percentage of achieving the current strategy reached 62 % by the end of its second year and referred to the CMA’s most prominent strategic projects and the developments of their implementation, particularly the projects that serve developmental aspects, such as Market Development Program, XBRL Electronic Disclosure System, and the project of setting the integrated regulatory framework for financial technologies services and products related to securities activities and launching the first services within its framework. Then, Mr. Tifouni moved to summarizing the most significant visions of the CMA for the upcoming years reaching the years of its next strategy (2027-2028/2030-2031) that is currently being prepared, which Mr. Tifouni considered a road map for the CMA in its coming years that extends until the end of March 2031.

In another context, in particular the CMA’s internal work environment, Mr. Tifouni noted to CMA’s pursuit to continue its efforts of maintaining its leadership in meeting the requirements of the public sector’s governance, which enabled it to rank first among entities of independent budget for several years, in addition to CMA’s obtaining of ISO certificate in several fields, such as business continuity, IT services management, and quality management system, further to making significant progress  in the implementation of its digital transformation strategy.

Achievements… and Aspirations
Following the opening message of the Chairman of the CMA Board of Commissioners, the report briefed CMA’s vision, mission, objectives, institutional values, and organizational structure before stating the performance of the CMA Board of Commissioners, Secretariat, and the councils and committees emanating and formed by it. The report has allocated a section for the strategic field, in which it presented the performance of the implementation plan of the CMA’s strategy and the development of implementing its performance indicators (completion of 50 sub-initiatives of 127 and working on 17 indicators of 29 indicators). It also allocated a section for sustainability in its three pillars (institutional, sustainability of the securities activities sector, social and environmental sustainability), particularly after the formation of a permanent committee specializing in adopting the sustainability standards and measuring and following up its indicators.
The most prominent section of the report was allocated to provide detail of the CMA’s achievements in regulating and supervising securities activities, beginning with the Legal, Legislative and Judicial Field, moving to its achievements in the Regulatory Field (Markets Regulation, trading, Licensing and Registration, Collective Investment Schemes, Capital Markets Development and Risk-Management, Corporate Finance, and Mergers and Acquisitions), then the Supervisory Field (Off-site Supervision, On-site Supervision, Markets Surveillance, and Disclosure and Transparency), and ending with highlighting the achievements in the Awareness, Media and External Cooperation Field.

Another section was allocated for “Organizing and Developing the Internal Work Environment”, especially regulating the activity of financial affairs and treasury, technical field, and general services, followed by a presentation of CMA’s future visions and aspirations that were ambitious enough to target the implementation of the long-term vision “To provide a safe and enabling regulatory environment to advance the State of Kuwait’s capital markets into developed markets that contribute to the national economy” and to be in line with Kuwait Vision 2035 of transforming into a regional financial center, which in fact contribute to enhancing the status of Kuwait on the global investment map through the goal of upgrading the local capital market on the advanced emerging markets indicator.
Section Eight of the report was allocated for the CMA’s financial statements of the financial year subject pf the report, which concluded with a presentation of the performance of Boursa Kuwait during 2024.

Qualitative Achievements
- The implementation of 62% of the CMA’s current strategy for the financial years (2023/2024-2026/2027), which included 3 pillars, 9 objectives, 26 main initiatives, and 127 sub-initiatives, after the expiration of 50% of its time cycle.
- Completion of the establishment of the Capital Markets Academy in the State of Kuwait and carrying out its tasks by the implementation of 6 training programs.
- The CMA’s adoption of a subjective approach to implement the sustainability standards, the formation of a permanent committee for implementing the sustainability standards and following up and measuring its indicators and preparing a strategy thereof, and the CMA’s issuance of its first annual report on sustainability.
- Moving to the final phases of the project of XBRL Electronic Disclosure System after the end of the pilot phase and precise testing, and the announcement of launching the mandatory application phase of the system
- Preparation to launch the second batch of the third phase of the Market Development Project after the end of the first and second phases and the first batch of the third phase, and implementation of 31 comprehensive tests.
- Issuance of the regulatory rules and provisions of passported funds after setting the mutual regulatory framework of passporting products in financial markets of the GCC Countries as an important procedure in the capital markets integration path of the GCC Countries.
- Setting the regulatory framework of financial technologies and the registration of companies in the concerned register of Securities-Based Fintech Services at the CMA, especially that this directive permits benefitting from the early use of technology in providing innovative financial services and products, protecting its investors, supporting entrepreneurs, providing new investment channels, and contributing to succeed the financial inclusion directives.
- Achieving an important step in the path of preparing the regulatory framework of the capital markets Islamic financial industry, beginning with the implementation of the MoU with the Islamic Development Bank Institute, especially in preparing studies and research for analyzing the current situation, benchmarking with the best international practices, and ending with developing the provisions of the tools of that industry such as regulating, issuing, and trading sukuks.

Numeric Terms
The mechanism for presenting the report's data varied between a brief explanation of the required aspects and adopting the language of numbers to recap the implemented tasks and achievements in other aspects. We summarize the most prominent of these numbers as follows:

- (42) meetings of the Board of Commissioners in which (289) topics were discussed and (306) decisions were taken.
- (959) matters on which a legal opinion was provided.
- (189) cases registered during the last financial year, bringing the number of lawsuits registered with the CMA to (1980) cases.
- Investigation of (118) violations and submitting (17) reports to the Public Prosecution.
- (66) collective investment schemes existing at the end of the last financial year of a total capital of 2,242,837 thousand KWD, the total asset value of which was 2,891,555 thousand KWD, and its net asset value was 2,868,346 thousand KWD.
- Granting (36) approvals to companies for capital increase, (7) approvals for capital reduction, (16) request for prospectuses, in addition to (149) approvals for the purchase or sale of company shares (treasury).
- (6,234) investment portfolios for securities in the State of Kuwait at the end of 2024 with a market value of 15,8 billion KWD, and 4,739 clients for investment portfolios.
- (7746) announcements were followed up on Boursa Kuwait, (32) observations on material information, (215) follow-ups on unusual trading cases, (404) disclosures of interests from natural or legal persons were revised, and (1299) updated lists of insiders.
- Licensing (71) persons and (234) activities.
- Deciding on (1212) applications for nomination, registration and cancellation of registered positions and employment positions with the CMA.
- 8,1 billion KWD is the total value for (8) approvals issued for debt instruments (bonds/sukuks) granted by the CMA during the last financial year.
- 1,0 billion USD is the issuance size of green, social, and sustainable bonds and sukuks licensed by the CMA.
- (44) merger and acquisition transactions executed by the CMA since its establishment until March 31, 2025, amounted to KWD 1,810,212,222.
- (337) financial and regulatory statements and reports were reviewed by the CMA, and (109) on-site supervision missions were completed.
- (244) agendas of companies’ general assemblies were reviewed before their holding as well as their minutes.
- (13) awareness workshops were conducted, (12) awareness campaigns, issuance of (2) publications and (4) issues of the electronic awareness magazine, broadcasting (28) infographics and (8) motion graphics, and (267) awareness messages through the CMA’s social media accounts.

Ambitious Directives
Further to fulfilling the programs included within the framework of the CMA’s current strategy in its two remaining years, the report summarized some of the CMA’s directives that the CMA intends to include programs thereon in its upcoming strategy, which is currently being prepared, in order to target the implementation of its long-term vision to provide an enabling regulatory environment for the capital markets development, to continue the path of upgrading the Kuwaiti capital market  to the level of advanced emerging markets according to the indices of the approved international rating agencies after being upgraded to the level of emerging markets, to be in line with Kuwait Vision 2035 of transforming into a regional financial center, and to clearly contribute to achieve the government development directives related to diversified sustainable economy, active government management, creative human capital, and outstanding international status. CMA’s most prominent tools to achieve the aforementioned are continuing its roles related to sustainability, digital transformation, and financial inclusion, providing more financial technologies services products, promoting the reality of the Islamic financial industry, the initiatives included within the framework of the remaining phases of the Market Development Program, qualification of infrastructure entities, trading debt instruments of bonds and sukuks, listing family companies, and the directives of the capital markets integration in the GCC Countries.
Finally, as the CMA announces the issuance of its fourteenth annual report to the public investors of securities activities and those concerned with it and draws their attention to accessing it through its website, it hopes that it will achieve their required interest and awareness of the implemented tasks and achievements.

Ends-
Notes to Editors:
The Capital Markets Authority was established pursuant to Law No. 7/2010, approved by the Kuwaiti Parliament in February 2010. Pursuant to the Law, the CMA shall regulate and supervise the securities activities, achieve transparency and fairness, observe listed companies’ execution of Corporate Governance regulations, and protect investors from unfair practices which violate the CMA's Law.

Furthermore, the Law's provisions stipulate the supervision of mergers, acquisitions, and disclosure operations. The CMA also aims to provide awareness programs related to securities activities.

For further information, please contact:
Public Relations & Media Office
Tel: 1888898
Email: pr-media@cma.gov.kw