LEGISLATION WATCH- The Capital Markets Act is expected to come out sometime in February, Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA) head Mohamed Omran said yesterday, Al Mal reports. The House’s Economics Committee had said in December that it was close to finalizing its review of the act — which should clear the way for a basket of new financial instruments to be introduced, including futures trading, short-selling and a commodities exchange, in addition to introducing penalties for financial crimes and new rules governing taxes for the sector — and moving it along to a plenary session vote. An FRA committee is currently drafting the mechanisms through which short-selling will be implemented and these will be used when drafting the executive regulations for the Act, he added, according to Al Borsa.

Leasing and factoring, insurance acts coming soon: The House should also receive the Leasing and Factoring Act “soon,” once the State Council and Justice Ministry are done revising it, Omran also said. He also stated that the new Insurance Act will also be completed this year, though he gave no detail on when that will be or details on the act itself.

In other news from the House, the Planning and Budgeting Committee is looking to increase the quota of local components required in government contracts stipulated in the Auctions and Tenders Act, committee deputy head Yasser Omar tells Al Borsa. The committee will likely raise the quota to 40% from 10% currently, bringing it in line with the Public Procurement Act’s imposed quota for Egyptian products used in national projects, Omar says. The Federation of Egyptian Industries’ engineering industries division is also drafting a list of requested amendments to the legislation, which it will present to the House Industrial Committee next week.