From order-takers to market makers: MENA brokers redefine regional capital markets

Long seen as intermediaries in fragmented, low-liquidity markets, brokers in MENA are now stepping into more active roles – enhancing execution infrastructure, expanding product access, supporting investor education and driving cross-border connectivity. Significant investments in digital platforms, market infrastructure, research services and client engagement are underpinning this evolution.  

Whether it is Egypt’s retail revolution, Oman’s liquidity transformation or the UAE’s institutional-scale infrastructure, the brokerage story across the region is increasingly one of ambition, competition and reform-driven opportunity. 

Brokers take on key role in market making and liquidity provision

Across multiple MENA markets, regulatory efforts to enhance trading depth are gaining momentum, and brokers are emerging as the linchpins of liquidity. From Saudi Arabia to Oman and Qatar, a growing number of firms are stepping into market-making roles, using dedicated platforms and algorithms to reduce bid-ask spreads, stabilise pricing and attract institutional flows. 

In Oman, United Securities became one of the first firms to obtain a market making and liquidity services licence after the issuance of executive regulations in 2023, launching formal mandates for four large-cap stocks. According to the firm’s leadership, this initiative helped transform previously illiquid stocks into daily movers, while mitigating volatility and improving price discovery. “We’re now seeing consistent 15% annualised trading of free float in our covered names,” says Mustafa Salman, chairman and CEO of United Securities. “It’s a critical step towards MSCI Emerging Market upgrade eligibility for the Muscat Stock Exchange (MSX).” 

We’re now seeing consistent 15% annualised trading of free float in our covered names. It’s a critical step towards MSCI Emerging Market upgrade eligibility for the Muscat Stock Exchange

Mustafa Salman, United Securities

Al Rajhi Capital in Saudi Arabia has also doubled down on liquidity provision after the 2022 launch of the Market Making Framework for Equity and Derivatives Markets. The firm executed SAR5.71 billion in market-making activity in 2024 – up 177% year-on-year. Active across both the main and Nomu markets, the firm supports names such as AMAK, Banan and Tharwah HR with structured liquidity mandates aligned with Tadawul’s evolving regulatory framework.  

In Bahrain, SICO continues its 26-year streak as the top broker by value and volume in 2024 – the same year that Bahrain Bourse introduced new Market Making Guidelines. SICO has managed the Bahrain Liquidity Fund since 2016, making a sizeable impact on daily traded value and turnover on the Bahrain Bourse, and it currently has four active mandates for market-making activity.  Meanwhile, QNB Financial Services (QNBFS) in Qatar reported growing institutional reliance on its market making and liquidity support for listed names, with minimal trader intervention thanks to advanced automation.  

This trend reflects more than just a tactical response to low turnover. As brokers take a proactive role in facilitating trades and smoothing volatility, they are repositioning themselves as foundational market infrastructure players. It also signals the deepening maturity of MENA markets, where price stability, tighter spreads and enhanced access are increasingly seen as preconditions for foreign participation. 

Digital onboarding revolution expands retail investor base

Nowhere is the modernisation of brokerage services more visible than in client onboarding. Across MENA, leading firms are eliminating the paperwork and physical barriers that long constrained retail participation – particularly in underserved markets or remote regions. The result is a marked rise in financial inclusion, female participation and youth engagement in capital markets. 

Egypt perhaps offers the clearest case study. Cairo-based Thndr has played a catalytic role in expanding access to the Egyptian Exchange (EGX) through its fully digital onboarding journey. In 2024, 82% of all newly coded EGX investors came through Thndr’s platform, according to the firm. By integrating electronic know your customer (eKYC), digital signatures and e-registry – becoming the first broker in Egypt to secure approval for all three pillars – Thndr enabled instant account creation and funding for new users, including those without bank accounts. More than 40% of its users now come from outside Cairo, and female participation rose from 3% to 12% of Thundr users last year alone.  

Thndr’s COO Seif Amr attributes the success to “removing all the traditional friction points” that historically deterred non-institutional investors. “If you’re someone in upper Egypt or a woman without easy mobility, getting to a branch to open an account used to be a major hurdle,” he says. “Now, you can do everything from your phone in five minutes.” 

Beltone Financial has also made retail growth a strategic priority. The firm introduced Egypt’s only sweep-account feature within its Beltone Trade app, enabling retail clients to automatically transfer idle cash to a money-market account. The platform’s ease of use and integrated mutual fund access contributed to a significant increase in retail market share, from 1.36% in 2023 to approximately 4.9% in Q1 2025, according to the firm.   

In Morocco, Attijari Intermédiation’s 2024 relaunch of wafabourse.com delivered a 232% increase in online trading volumes over the year. The firm, which holds a 25% domestic market share, has ambitions to extend its digital reach across West and Central Africa, using the platform as a springboard for pan-African connectivity. 

Oman’s United Securities offers another notable case. Its AI-enabled onboarding system reduced KYC processing time from 48 hours to just 30 minutes, supporting a 40% annual increase in new client acquisition in 2024 and broadening retail access in a market historically dominated by institutional flows. 

Collectively, these innovations mark a turning point in MENA retail brokerage. For the first time, young investors, women and underbanked populations are gaining fast-track access to the capital markets – an achievement that not only boosts trading volumes but also serves long-term financial literacy and inclusion goals across the region. 

Broker-driven tech upgrades elevate execution performance

As regional markets attract more diverse and sophisticated investors, brokerage firms across MENA are racing to modernise their execution infrastructure. From low-latency order management systems (OMS) and direct market access (DMA) to smart order routing and algorithmic trading, the region’s top brokers are deploying technology to deliver faster, more efficient and more transparent execution. 

In Oman, United Securities has emerged as a national leader in trading infrastructure modernisation. In 2024, the firm reduced execution time by 35% year-on-year by integrating a low-latency OMS, and deployed smart order routing capabilities that reduced bid/ask spreads by an average of 12% for active traders. It also launched an algorithmic trading suite for institutional and ultra-high-net-worth (UHNW) clients, featuring advanced execution strategies such as volume-weighted average price and time-weighted average price. Meanwhile, its enhanced DMA platform features embedded pre-trade risk checks, cutting order rejection rates by 40%. These upgrades coincided with a 76% increase in total trading turnover and a sharp rise in mobile-based trading, particularly among retail clients. 

If you’re someone in upper Egypt or a woman without easy mobility, getting to a branch to open an account used to be a major hurdle. Now, you can do everything from your phone in five minutes

Seif Amr, Thndr

Al Rajhi Capital in Saudi Arabia has taken a similarly ambitious approach. Through its OMS modernisation programme, the firm enhanced price-feed dissemination and slashed order lifecycle time from initiation to completion. With financial information exchange (FIX) connectivity to more than 35 global asset managers, Al Rajhi supports advanced order types, such as basket, conditional and deferred. These enhancements, paired with a customer experience (CX) command centre and an upgraded mobile application, have positioned the firm as a leader in execution performance across the Saudi main and Nomu markets.  

In Egypt, Thndr has taken a different path – building its OMS entirely in-house. The firm has also completed a full rewrite of its FIX client and implemented logical parallelism in processing execution reports, improving processing speed by 40%. Elsewhere, it has introduced instant 24/7 withdrawals and is in the process of moving its infrastructure to Amazon Web Services (AWS) Outpost servers within Egypt to comply with local data regulations while maintaining international performance standards. The platform processed 15.6 million trades last year and achieved an 11% share of the EGX retail market.  

International Securities in the UAE also upgraded its infrastructure with smart order routing technology and enhanced post-trade processing. The firm’s high-touch and low-touch execution desks cater to a broader institutional base, with trading infrastructure built for scale. It processed 65 million transactions in 2024 and registered a combined market-leading share of almost 40% on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) and Dubai Financial Market by value.  

These broker-led infrastructure upgrades are helping to close the performance gap between MENA and more mature global markets. More importantly, they are laying the foundation for broader investor participation – giving institutions, asset managers and active retail traders the speed, control and reliability they increasingly demand. 

Brokers expand regional and asset-class access through multi-market platforms

As investor appetites diversify and regional markets integrate, leading MENA brokerage firms are evolving from domestic trade facilitators into multi-asset, multi-market investment platforms. This strategic expansion is enabling clients – retail and institutional alike – to easily access new geographies and instruments. 

In Bahrain, SICO now provides clients access to equities in more than 10 MENA markets, as well as global equities, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and real estate investment trusts (REITs) in the US, UK and 15 European markets through its SICO Live platform. In 2024, it launched a fractional bond trading service that lowered the standard minimum investment threshold for international debt instruments from $200,000 to $50,000, opening up access to smaller institutions and affluent individuals.  

In Egypt, Thndr has played a pioneering role in making non-equity products accessible to everyday investors. In 2024, the platform facilitated 47% of all trades in Egypt’s first gold mutual fund, and also launched a savings product in partnership with a local asset manager, enabling users to allocate idle cash into high-yield mutual funds directly through the app. These offerings have helped Thndr attract users seeking inflation hedges, while serving as a gateway to more complex investment products. 

Saudi Arabia’s Al Rajhi Capital has also significantly broadened its offering. In 2024, clients gained access to 38 international markets, with additions of margin including US-listed ETFs and options trading. The brokerage also expanded its Nomu market coverage and enhanced international trading access and institutional execution connectivity, making it a key enabler of global access from within the kingdom. 

In Jordan, AB Invest has leveraged its relationship with parent company Arab Bank to provide clients access to the MENA region, Europe and the US through its e-Tadawul platform. The platform facilitates digital onboarding, trading in multiple currencies and asset classes, and aims to meet the growing demand among Jordanian investors for diversified international exposure. 

These platform expansions reflect the broader evolution of MENA brokerages into full-spectrum investment hubs. By offering access to gold, sukuk, mutual funds, ETFs, REITs, global equities and more, the region’s top brokers are responding to demand for diversification, yield and inflation protection. Just as importantly, they are positioning themselves as gateways to the full offerings of capital markets – within the region and beyond. 

Brokers deepen institutional engagement through research, corporate access

While retail expansion and digital transformation may generate more attention, leading MENA brokers are also advancing in more discreet but equally critical areas: institutional engagement and research leadership. Through robust sell-side coverage, corporate access programmes and international investor outreach, these firms are evolving from execution providers into strategic market enablers. 

EFG Hermes stands out as one of the region’s most geographically diversified brokerage, with on-the-ground operations in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Kuwait. In 2024, it maintained its top ranking in Egypt with a 33% overall market share and captured 45% of foreign investor flows into the market – the highest of any broker. The firm’s research team covers 48 companies, representing 71% of EGX market capitalisation, and supports a global institutional client base with detailed company insights, market intelligence and conference-driven access. Its flagship One-on-One conference in Dubai in 2024 attracted more than 660 investors from 170 international firms, meeting with 205 listed companies from across the region.  

QNBFS had a 55% market share among institutional investors in 2024 and reports growing traction in the retail and high-net-worth (HNW) segments. Its research team covers 75% of local market capitalisation and actively engages with international funds via roadshows in London and New York, along with regular earnings calls. In 2024, QNBFS hosted more than 150 quarterly earnings calls on behalf of Qatari-listed firms – a key component of its strategy to enhance transparency and corporate access.  

In the UAE, International Securities continues to play a pivotal role in foreign-investor integration. In 2024, the firm served as lead placement agent or joint bookrunner on several landmark IPOs, including NMDC Energy and Lulu Retail Holdings, while providing research coverage and investor education to support each listing. It also released regular MSCI index rebalancing previews to guide investor positioning, and its research team engaged with global asset managers and buy-side institutions through customised reports, non-deal roadshows and conference calls.  

Meanwhile in Oman, United Securities has strengthened its research capability to support its growing institutional client base. In 2024, the firm produced more than 100 company-specific reports and deep-dive sector analyses covering more than 75% of MSX market capitalisation. Its investor briefings, mid-year and year-end strategy reports, and macroeconomic commentary have become required reading for local and foreign funds navigating the evolving Oman equity story.  

Taken together, such efforts signal a shift in the broker-value proposition – away from volume-focused trade execution and toward insight-driven, globally connected advisory. In increasingly competitive and capital-hungry markets, the firms that combine research depth with international reach are not just intermediaries – they are ecosystem builders helping to shape the future of MENA’s capital markets. 

Architects of market development

The transformation of MENA’s brokerage landscape represents more than incremental improvement – it signals a fundamental reimagining of capital-market intermediation across the region. From Oman’s liquidity revolution to Egypt’s digital-inclusion breakthrough, brokers are no longer passive order-takers but active architects of market development. 

The convergence of regulatory reform, technological advancement and demographic shift has created unprecedented opportunities for firms willing to invest in infrastructure, embrace innovation and expand their value proposition. As these trends accelerate through 2025 and beyond, the winners will be those that successfully balance scale with specialisation, and deep local market knowledge with global connectivity.