Oman’s Capital Markets Authority (CMA) has embarked on a journey to reform and develop its capital markets. Its mission is to build confidence in the markets, improve corporate governance and introduce clear and comprehensive regulations. It also seeks to improve the depth of the market by attracting retail participation.

The CMA has identified over 40 projects to help realise its vision, under the motto “Better Markets for All”. Some of the projects to be implemented in 2015 include enhancing corporate governance standards through disclosure requirements and issuer rules, and improving market surveillance and regulations to prevent market abuse.

The Muscat Clearing & Depository Company (MCD) has introduced a new universal clearing system which enables it to implement delivery-verses-payment (DVP) through simultaneous exchange of cash and securities on the settlement date. “With the new process, custodians can accept or reject transactions and enable market settlement on the securities side. As a next step MCD will invite custodians to act as clearing members and perform cash settlement directly for their client trades,” says Gavin Serrao, assistant vice president, client services at HSBC Securities Services.