Middle East & Africa Reg Desk

Thursday, 2026-08-20 · covering the last 24h

Gulf

No material new items from Saudi CMA/Tadawul, UAE SCA/DFSA/FSRA/DFM/ADX, Qatar QFMA/QSE or Kuwait CMA/Boursa Kuwait in the last 24 hours. DFSA's Consultation Paper 173 (DIFC funds regime) remains open, closing 7 September. No Fed meeting fell in this window, so there is no fresh dollar-peg follow-through to report from SAMA, CBUAE, QCB or CBK.

Israel

No material new items from the Israel Securities Authority or TASE. The Bank of Israel's Monetary Committee meeting remains set for 1 September; its last move was a 25bp cut to 3.50% on 6 July.

Africa

Egypt's CBE holds key rates for a fourth straight meeting amid persistent inflation. The Monetary Policy Committee left the overnight deposit rate at 19.00%, the overnight lending rate at 20.00% and the main operation/discount rate at 19.50% at today's meeting, in line with market expectations. The committee cited annual urban inflation accelerating to 14.9% in July (from 14.3% in June) and continued regional pressure on the pound and import costs as reasons to keep the 2025 easing cycle paused. The next MPC meeting is 24 September. CBE press releases

No material update on Egypt's FRA short-selling framework (Resolution 155, issued 19 August) beyond a reported one-month broker technology-readiness grace period; no trading start date has been set. No material new items from South Africa's FSCA/JSE or Kenya's CMA/NSE; Nigeria's NGX pricing-methodology relaunch still has no new effective date.

Informational only — summaries of public regulatory and central bank sources; not advice.