The Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA) announced Wednesday its compliance with the Global Investment Performance Standards (GIPS) from the CFA Institute, reported the Saudi Press Agency.
The announcement is part of efforts to strengthen the methods of measuring SAMA’s investment portfolio performance and apply the global best practices in the field.
Introduced in 1999, the GIPS standards are universal voluntary standards based on the fundamental principles of full disclosure and fair representation of investment performance. The standards are administered globally by the CFA Institute.
SAMA joins a list that includes 11 prominent asset owners and other investment firms operating in more than 40 markets around the world, including all or a portion of 24 of the top 25 asset managers globally as of the end of 2018, according to data from Cerulli Associates
CFA Deputy Governor for Investment, Ayman Al-Sayari said: “SAMA’s adoption of the GIPS standards reflects its determination and commitment to adopt the best global practices and to support achieving the goals of Saudi Vision 2030.”
“This achievement is the result of SAMA’s continued efforts in adopting advanced investment risk and performance measurement systems,” he continued.
“These investments contribute to strengthening the integrity of investment performance reports presented to SAMA’s stakeholders because they are based on globally recognized standards.”
“Asset owners that comply with the GIPS standards demonstrate a commitment to follow best practices for fairly representing and fully disclosing investment performance,” said Paul Smith, President and CEO of the CFA Institute.
“Unlike asset managers who may obtain a competitive advantage from complying with the GIPS standards, asset owners like SAMA choose to comply for purely ethical reasons – because compliance is simply good governance.”
“Having an asset owner as prominent as SAMA publicly announce compliance with the GIPS standards elevates the importance of the GIPS standards globally, and we encourage all asset owners to follow SAMA’s lead.”
