CMA issues guiding manual for asset managers to gauge investment risks

Logo of Capital Market Authority (CMA)

The Capital Market Authority (CMA) issued its guiding manual to help asset managers determine the risk levels of the investment funds they manage, enabling investors to make more informed and clearer investment decisions regarding investment funds.

In a statement today, Sept. 3, the CMA said the guidelines aim to enhance transparency and disclosure in investment funds in Saudi Arabia by providing proposed mechanisms for determining fund risk levels based on criteria that allow risks to be assessed in a systematic and clear manner.

The authority added that the guidelines come as the Saudi capital market is witnessing significant expansion in investment fund activity in terms of the number of funds, asset size and diversity of fund categories.

This underscores the importance of assessing risk levels on objective, comparable bases across funds, facilitating investors’ evaluation of investment funds, helping them better understand the nature of risks associated with each fund, and enabling more informed and accurate investment decisions.

The CMA said the guidelines include a five-level scale for classifying investment fund risk, ranging from “Low” to “High,” providing a framework that reflects the nature of risks associated with each fund and makes risk information more accurate and transparent, thereby improving the quality of information available to investors.

Investment fund assets in the Saudi market reached SAR 1 trillion at the end of H1 2026, up 28.2% from SAR 781 billion in H1 2025.

Meanwhile, the number of investment fund subscribers rose 0.5% to more than 1.769 million, compared with more than 1.761 million in H1 2025. The number of funds reached 2,249 at the end of H1 2026, up 29.6% from 1,735 in the same period a year earlier.