UAE has met all conditions for MSCI upgrade-ADX exec

UAE has met all conditions for MSCI upgrade-ADX exec

"The checklist that they (MSCI) had. We got ticked in all except DvP. Now that is ticked. We are positive," said Rashed al Baloushi, deputy chief executive.

May 5, 2011 3:27 by p.deleon

The United Arab Emirates has met all conditions for an upgrade to coveted emerging market status from influential index complier MSCI, a senior official at the Abu Dhabi exchange said on Thursday.

“The checklist that they (MSCI) had. We got ticked in all except DvP. Now that is ticked. We are positive,” said Rashed al Baloushi, deputy chief executive.

The index complier will announce in June whether it will upgrade Qatar and UAE from the ‘frontier markets’ category, a move that could open up the countries’ bourses to multibillion dollar liquidity and drive index fund investments.

Manuel Rensink, regional head of MSCI, said on Wednesday he was “generally positive” on the prospects of an upgrade.

The UAE and Qatar, both rejected twice for an upgrade, have moved to address key issues cited in MSCI’s 2010 review by introducing a Delivery versus Payment (DvP) settlement system.

Last week, UAE bourses gave brokers and custodians until May 29 to switch to the DvP system, which is a global standard.

(Reporting by Stanley Carvalho; Writing by Amran Abocar, Editing by Dinesh Nair)