Chasing a Capital Market Authority in Kuwait

While the argument over the economic stimulus package continues in the National Assembly, another piece of equally controversial and critical legislation is still being awaited by Kuwaiti traders. In the last few years, Kuwaiti traders repeatedly demonstrated in front of the bourse building against the manipulation of stock prices.

They even demonstrated against the decisions of the administration of the KSE itself for not halting trading - some cases went all the way to courts before they could find any resolution.

These continued standoffs raised many voices that demanded the establishment of an independent, supervisory authority to resolve the conflicts inside the stock market, but the formation of this authority itself seems to cause another kind of conflict - a legal one.

The Kuwait Stock Exchange is the second largest market in the Arab world with a net value of more than KD 40 billion, and yet it remains the only market in the GCC without a capital market authority.