​The Capital Market Authority (CMA) said in a press release issued yesterday that it published a list of all investment funds that have been officially licensed to be established or to have their units publicly offered by Authorized Persons (financial institutions) in a step which aims at protecting investors from dealing with unauthorized persons that deal with securities in the market.

The list contains the names of all investment funds licensed by CMA, whether the investments and assets of these funds target the local capital market, foreign capital markets, money markets, or sukuk markets. CMA said the investment funds in the list had met the official requirements by Authorized Persons to be publicly offered, according to CMA’s investment funds or real estate funds regulations.

Information provided in the list include: the name of the investment fund and its manager (Authorized Person), the date the investment fund received its license from CMA, category of investment, and the fund’s requirements and conditions. CMA said that the list would be updated automatically and continuously, as new investment funds will be added to the list once they are licensed by CMA. On the other hand, investment funds that are delisted will be removed.

CMA stressed that this procedure aims at strengthening transparency in the capital market by providing information to investors which would enable them to take the proper investment decision. It further said that this would deter the violation of market conduct regulations which include dealing with unauthorized persons who do not obtain a license to operate in the capital market, as stated by the Capital Market Law.