Eurasia Press & News
The Egyptian Capital Market Authority (CMA) with support from the Securities & Investment Institute (SII) in London is set to introduce a challenging new regime for individuals working in the Egyptian securities and investment industry.
Dr Hani Sarie-Eldin, Chairman of the CMA and Simon Culhane, CEO of SII yesterday signed a collaboration agreement in Cairo to provide a set of examinations to support the CMA announcement of the introduction of a new Licensed Individual Regime.
The new licensing regime, due to take effect from 30 June 2008, will require over 3,500 staff working in the Egyptian capital markets to be qualified, reinforcing standards of competence and integrity in the industry. To maintain each individual’s competence, the CMA will introduce a mandatory Continuing Professional Development scheme.
The new Regime will stipulate that individuals undertaking certain jobs within the Egyptian capital market will require a licence to operate. Generally this licence will be obtained by passing a designated qualification.
At CMA’s request SII is helping to develop the mandatory qualifications to support the new licensing regime. These include a new Egyptian Regulatory Examination and an International Introduction to Securities and Investment qualification. Both will be available in Arabic as well as English. Some candidates, depending on their roles within the industry, will be required to take the Operational Risk paper, or the International Investment Management paper.
The CMA is building a new Computer Based Testing (CBT) centre in Cairo and enrolment for the new qualifications will take place from September 2007. Candidates will be able to visit the CMA offices at Cairo to enrol. The examinations will take the form of multiple-choice question papers with results available instantly to candidates at the CBT centre.
Comprehensive workbooks will be available in September in Arabic and English for the core units from CMA offices, with study time for each qualification estimated at three months. The SII has accredited three training organisations to run the licensed examinations which include the Egyptian Capital Market Association, the Egyptian Banking Institute and Citadel Capital Financial Services Centre of the American University in Cairo.
Simon Culhane, CEO of the SII said, ‘We were honoured to have been approached by the CMA to partner with them in this important initiative. The new regime and the associated qualifications and CPD requirements will further raise the confidence of investors in Egyptian capital markets.’
Dr Hani Sarie-Eldin, Chairman of the CMA said, ‘It is my pleasure to conclude such an important agreement with an internationally recognized organization in the capital markets field like the SII. This really constitutes an important step towards positioning Egypt and its human capital among the leading markets in the region.’