Comment: A watchdog needs more than teeth

* username: rupertbu

Abdulrahman al-Tuwaijri was in a determined mood last summer. There were no “untouchables”, the chairman of Saudi Arabia’s Capital Market Authority told me, and nobody would be immune from a crackdown on insider trading and manipulation of the Arab world’s largest stock market.

It is not unusual to hear bold statements from officials across the region promising to tackle flaws in their systems. The problem, however, is that deeds more often than not fail to match words.

Yet just two months later Prince Ahmed bin Khaled al-Saud was added to a lengthening list of Saudis who found themselves named and shamed by the CMA. Prince Ahmed, chairman of Saudi Chemical Company, and six other board members were fined SR50,000 ($13,300) each for disclosure irregularities. He might not have been a high-profile member of the royal family, but the fact that an Al-Saud had felt the CMA’s wrath sent an important message.