Egypt to Endorse ETFs in Q4; Says Regulator Chief

Egypt’s market regulator said on Wednesday it seeks to approve  Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) for the first time in the last quarter of this fiscal year, with the aim of boosting market liquidity and luring more investors.

Sherif Samy, Chairman of the Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority (EFSA) stated in a phone interview with Reuters that activating ETFs in the Egyptian capital market would not take more than 2 to 3 weeks, noting that such a move would take place in the fourth quarter of current year.

“I don’t think it will take more than two or three weeks to activate exchange traded funds on the Egyptian market; however our stated goal is to do so during the fourth quarter of the current fiscal year, if no unforeseen events prevent us from doing so.” Mr. Samy noted

ETFs are index funds that are listed and traded on stock exchanges like shares; they allow investors to gain a broad exposure to entire stock markets of different countries and specific sectors with relative ease, on a real-time basis and at a lower cost than many other forms of investing.