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Boursa Kuwait to launch sukuk, bond trading in 2025

KUWAIT CITY - Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Boursa Kuwait Mohammad Al-Osaimi said the timeline for debt instrument trading is proceeding as planned, indicating that sukuk and bonds will be traded in 2025. He affirmed that all technical tests for index funds and the bond and sukuk market have been completed, and the regulatory rules are currently being prepared and will be announced within the next few months. Al-Osaimi announced on the sidelines of the launch of the second part of the third phase of the Capital Market Development Program, which is a major milestone that reflects the market system’s commitment to continue development per international best practices. Regarding the expected volume of debt instrument trading on the stock exchange, Al-Osaimi explained, “The current value of commercial debt instruments does not exceed KD2 billion, but after the approval of the Debt Law, we aspire to list government bonds and sukuk”. He pointed out that the stock exchange has a development program extending over three or four years to introduce major updates to its trading system. He revealed “we will begin testing the new trading system in the second half of 2026.” He stated that the stock exchange is cooperating with the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) to review several products to better present them, stressing that the introduction of the CCP and the Central Broker will help the stock exchange offer financial derivatives soon. He explained that these developments will lead to attracting foreign investments, coinciding with increased investor confidence. About amending the listing requirements on the main market, Al-Osaimi confirmed that “when the reduction of listing requirements on the main market was approved by reducing the company’s capital limit from KD15 million to KD5 million, we received numerous communications from subscription managers in this regard.”