Depth of Capital Markets in Saudi Arabia

“The capital market in Saudi Arabia is quite young relative to other more established markets. The CMA (Capital Markets Authority) started authorising companies in 2005,” says Dr. Boutros Klink, CEO of Standard Chartered.

“The Saudi stock market crash in 2006 followed by the credit crisis of 2007/2008 impacted the speed of development of the markets. We were expecting things to develop a lot faster than they did. The number of licensed entities grew exponentially in the first few years, then came off substantially, and we’re currently witnessing growth again. I do think that over the last few years, significant development and improvement took place accompanied by a lot learning, and we are currently beginning to see the results filter through.”