Listing regulations that impose a one month deadline for companies to IPO after receiving regulatory approval will come into effect today, after being published in the Official Gazette last night. Under the new regulations, the Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA) had also made it mandatory for companies wishing to list new shares to first apply for FRA approval FRA and submit fair value reports and details of the IPO. The amendments include an internal deadline for FRA to process listing requests within 15 days of receiving the application.

Expect lots of news from EBRD’s second SEMED Business Forum, which kicks off today: The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s second Business Forum for the southern and eastern Mediterranean (SEMED) region will be held at the Conrad Hotel in Cairo today (you can register for the event here). The forum, which is being held under the theme of investing for sustainable growth, will see discussions on the region’s business outlook and obstacles to increasing investments. EBRD President Suma Chakrabarti and Investment and International Cooperation Minister Sahar Nasr will lead the forum.

We expect EBRD to announce it has signed partnership or financing agreements with at least two Egyptian banks, and the institution said in an emailed statement that Egypt and Tunisia will sign a number of MoUs at the forum today, without providing further details. EBRD has also said that it is supporting the Women and Foetal Imaging (WAFI) clinic in Cairo by putting its founder in contact with a strategic advisor.

Elsewhere this morning:

The Donald may be roiling politics, but he’s had a soporific effect on the US market, the Financial Times reports, noting that “the year after Donald Trump’s surprise victory in the US presidential election have been the quietest months for the US stock market in more than half a century. … The quietest 12 months on record also followed a political shock, starting a week after the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963.”

Lebanon fears being given the Qatar treatment: “Lebanese politicians and bankers believe Saudi Arabia intends to do to their country what it did to Qatar — corral Arab allies into enforcing an economic blockade unless its demands are met,” Reuters notes this morning.

More than 15,000 scientists from 184 countries have issued a “warning to humanity” on the 25th anniversary of a previous warning that human-induced climate change is destroying our planet, Canada’s CBC reports.