Decree 130 of 2026: Capital Markets Authority Moves to the Economic Affairs Minister's Portfolio

Supervision of the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) has been transferred to the Minister of State for Economic Affairs and Investment under Decree No. 130 of 2026, published in the Official Gazette Kuwait Al-Youm, Issue 1805, on 23 August 2026. The decree was signed on 16 August 2026 and applies from the date of its issuance.

Under Article 1, the Minister of State for Economic Affairs and Investment now exercises all the powers that Law No. 7 of 2010, the law that established the CMA and regulates securities activity, reserves for the "competent minister". Since 2010 that role had sat with the Minister of Commerce and Industry, making the commerce portfolio the CMA's channel to the Cabinet. That channel has now moved.

The transfer completes a consolidation that began earlier this year. Decrees issued in March 2026 placed the Kuwait Investment Authority, the Public Institution for Social Security, the Kuwait Direct Investment Promotion Authority, the General Secretariat of the Supreme Council for Planning and Development and the Central Statistical Bureau under the same portfolio, held since February 2026 by Abdulaziz Al-Marzouq. The CMA itself remains an independent regulator; the decree changes which minister answers for it at Cabinet level, not the rules it applies.

WEFAQ's view: licensed persons and listed companies do not need to change anything today. Licences, filings and contact points at the CMA are unchanged. The real shift is at policy level, where capital markets now sit alongside the State's investment and planning bodies rather than with commerce.