Middle East & Africa Reg Desk

Monday, 2026-11-02 · covering the last 72h

Gulf

Saudi CMA tightens IPO underwriting, order-verification and forecast-disclosure rules. The Board approved regulatory provisions, effective from publication on 2 November, requiring underwriting agreements to be executed and in effect before book-building starts (triggering the underwriter's full-subscription obligation, with a disposal mechanism if that breaches Listing Rules); subscription and participation orders must now reflect investors' actual available liquidity, verifiable only through cash and cash equivalents, and become binding for payment no later than the prospectus payment deadline; and issuers must disclose forward-looking financial forecasts, with methodology, assumptions and risks, which financial advisers must now apply due diligence to. The changes bind issuers, underwriters, financial advisers and subscribing investors. CMA notice

Otherwise quiet across the Gulf: nothing new from Tadawul, the UAE's DFM and ADX, the ADGM's FSRA, Qatar's QFMA/QSE or Kuwait's CMA and Boursa Kuwait, and none of SAMA, CBUAE, QCB or CBK put out a rule.

Israel

Israel stayed quiet: no fresh moves from the ISA, TASE or the Bank of Israel's Banking Supervision Department this period.

Africa

South Africa's FSCA, the JSE and the SARB stayed quiet, as did Egypt's FRA and CBE, Nigeria's SEC and CBN, Kenya's CMA and CBK, and Morocco's AMMC and Bank Al-Maghrib.

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