Despite the progress of their financial industry, two chronic issues have been of great concern to all Arab markets: sustainable retirement funding and the small volumes of trading in all their capital markets!

It is not surprising that a number of Arab capital markets have been grappling with a scarcity of capital and a lack of healthy stock exchange trading volumes for decades. That’s simply because they haven’t taken care of policies and financial products that accumulate and build capital, namely private pension savings and long-term retail investments.

Without capital, you cannot have capital markets. Without capital markets, you cannot make the Arab economy fit for the future.

In any debate on the future of Arab capital markets, widening retirement savings and widening retail investment are the missing links.

For example, the pension fund assets across 22 major pension markets (P22) now stand at US$55.7 trillion as reported in a study by WTW and the Thinking Ahead Institute, which shows the significant potential of pension vehicles to build massive capital.

Private pension funds, which are a core pillar in global pension systems, have not been receiving enough and adequate focus in the Arab financial industry, neither in government pension conferences nor in regional insurance forums.

The “Arab Private Pension Funds Conference” is aimed at highlighting the potential of private pension funds both in supporting a sustainable national retirement security and in creating a thriving capital market across the Arab world.