QE becomes full member of world bourses federation

The Qatar Exchange (QE) has become a full member of the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE) in a new recognition of the progress achieved by the Qatari bourse at various technical, regulatory and operational levels.

The granting of full membership is considered a new step in the context of integration into the global financial markets and stock exchanges and will attract more foreign investments, QE chief executive Rashid Ali al-Mansoori told the 53rd annual meeting of WFE in Mexico.

With this, the QE, which has remained as associate for many years, has made the twin achievements with the first being its upgrade into ‘emerging’ market from ‘frontier’ status by MSCI.

“We are happy to be part of an organisation that represents markets worldwide that are fair, transparent, well regulated and that play an important role in the economies of our respective countries,” al-Mansoori said.

Highlighting that in just over 15 years, the QE has made significant progress, he said the listed companies represent a good part of domestic economy, local investors are active and increasingly sophisticated and more international investors are attracted to the market by the strong economy of Qatar and the reliable market infrastructure.

Stressing that QE is committed to implementing the best international standards, al-Mansoori said the acceptance in the WFE membership has been achieved as a result of remarkable developments and commitment with best international practices in terms of providing better services to local and international investors. This was reflected in upgrading the QE status by MSCI to ‘emerging’ market, he added.

The membership reflects the commitment of member stock exchanges with the generally accepted global standards to allow more investments. The WFE membership is an important reference for many international investors about the investment atmosphere in the member markets because the membership reflects the member bourses’ commitment to implementing the best international practices and standards.