How to List on Palestine Securities Exchange (PX), PCMA Instructions Explained (PDF Checklist)

If you are researching how to list on Palestine Securities Exchange PDF resources, official regulator instructions and practical step-by-step guidance, this guide consolidates everything a prospective issuer needs in one place. The Palestine Exchange (PEX) is open to domestic and foreign public shareholding companies that satisfy the Palestinian Capital Market Authority’s (PCMA) obligatory listing instructions, meet minimum free-float thresholds and submit a compliant prospectus. This article walks through every stage of the PEX listing process, from pre-application eligibility checks through PCMA review rounds to the allocation of a listing date, and flags the practical effects of Decree-Law No. (4) of 2026, which caps cash transactions at ILS 30,000 and reshapes subscription-payment flows for new issuances.

A downloadable issuer checklist is provided below so that corporate counsel, company secretaries and lead managers can track each deliverable against the regulator’s requirements.

Quick Issuer Checklist, Palestine Securities Exchange Listing Requirements (PDF Preview)

The checklist below summarises the core deliverables the PCMA and PEX expect from an applicant company. Use it as a tracking tool alongside the full obligatory listing instructions published by the PCMA.

• Board resolution. Formal board resolution approving the listing application and authorising the submission to PCMA.
• General assembly (shareholder) approval. Minutes of the extraordinary or ordinary general assembly approving the listing.
• Audited financial statements. Three consecutive years of audited financial statements prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).
• Prospectus draft. A complete prospectus meeting PCMA content requirements, including risk factors and use-of-proceeds disclosure.
• Corporate governance statement. Evidence of compliance with PCMA corporate governance rules, including board composition and audit-committee formation.
• Free-float plan. Documentation showing how the company will meet or maintain the required free-float percentage.
• Underwriting agreement. Where applicable, a signed underwriting or placement agreement with a licensed securities firm.
• Escrow and subscription-payment arrangements. Bank-transfer escrow instructions compliant with Decree-Law No. (4) of 2026 (ILS 30,000 cash cap).
• AML/KYC documentation. Beneficial-ownership disclosures and anti-money-laundering declarations for major shareholders.
• Articles of association and certificate of incorporation. Certified copies, plus, for foreign issuers, translated and legalised equivalents.

Is There a Palestine Exchange and Who Lists on It?

Yes. The Palestine Exchange, branded PEX and formerly known as the Palestine Securities Exchange (PSE), has operated as the sole securities exchange in the Palestinian territories since its establishment in 1997. PEX is headquartered in Nablus and regulated by the Palestinian Capital Market Authority. It lists public shareholding companies across sectors including banking, insurance, investment, services, and industry. Major listed issuers include Bank of Palestine, Palestine Telecommunications Company (PALTEL), and the Palestine Investment Bank, among others. As of mid-2026, the exchange lists securities across five primary sectors and offers electronic trading through licensed brokerage members. Full issuer data and real-time market information are published on the PEX official website.

Industry observers note that, while the Palestine stock exchange today remains a frontier market by global standards, its regulatory infrastructure has matured significantly, making a listing increasingly attractive for companies seeking access to local and regional capital.

Who Can Apply: Entity Types and Foreign Issuer Eligibility

Domestic Public Shareholding Companies

The primary applicant class consists of Palestinian public shareholding companies incorporated under the Palestinian Companies Law. These entities must have converted to public-shareholding status (or been incorporated as such from inception), maintain a registered share capital that meets the PCMA minimum threshold, and issue a single class of transferable ordinary shares, or, where preference shares exist, provide full disclosure of the rights attaching to each class. The company’s articles of association must not contain restrictions on the free transferability of shares that would prevent trading on PEX.

Foreign Shareholding Companies

The PCMA’s obligatory listing instructions contemplate applications from foreign shareholding companies registered to operate in Palestine. According to the PCMA instructions, a foreign company seeking listing must provide its certificate of incorporation, evidence of registration with the relevant Palestinian authority, and any additional documentation the Authority requires to verify its corporate standing and regulatory compliance in the home jurisdiction. All documents must be translated into Arabic (where originally in another language) and legalised or apostilled as applicable. Early indications suggest that the PCMA applies the same substantive listing requirements, financial, governance and disclosure, to foreign issuers, with additional documentary proof of home-jurisdiction good standing.

Palestine Securities Exchange Listing Requirements, Detailed Breakdown

The Palestine securities exchange listing requirements are anchored in two regulatory layers: the Palestinian Securities Law and the PCMA’s obligatory listing instructions. Prospective issuers should treat the PCMA PDF as the definitive compliance manual. The table below summarises the principal requirements; each is discussed in greater detail in the subsections that follow.

Capital Requirements

The PCMA instructions require that the applicant company’s paid-up share capital meets the statutory minimum prescribed by the Palestinian Companies Law. Issuers should confirm the current threshold directly with the PCMA, as the amount may be updated by secondary regulation. In practice, capital adequacy is assessed not only against the statutory floor but also against the company’s free-float plan: a higher absolute capital base makes it easier to achieve the required percentage of freely tradable shares.

Corporate Governance Standards

The PCMA mandates compliance with its Corporate Governance Code as a precondition for listing. Key elements include the appointment of independent non-executive directors (typically a minimum of one-third of the board), the formation of an audit committee with at least one member possessing financial expertise, and the adoption of internal-control and risk-management policies. The governance statement must be filed as part of the listing application and is subject to PCMA review.

Audited Financial Statements

Three consecutive fiscal years of audited financial statements, prepared under IFRS and signed by an auditor approved by the PCMA, form the backbone of the listing file. The PCMA reviews the audit opinions for qualifications, going-concern issues and material adjustments. Companies with fewer than three years of operating history, for example, newly formed entities resulting from a corporate restructuring, should discuss modified filing arrangements with the Authority at the pre-application stage.

Shareholder Approvals and Statutory Filings

A general assembly resolution authorising the board to proceed with a listing on PEX is mandatory. The resolution must be passed in accordance with the quorum and voting requirements set out in the company’s articles of association and the Palestinian Companies Law. Certified minutes, the attendance register, and evidence of proper notice to shareholders must all be included in the application file submitted to the PCMA.

PCMA Obligatory Listing Instructions, Annotated Step by Step

The Palestinian Capital Market Authority’s obligatory listing instructions, published as a standalone PDF on the PCMA’s website, set out the procedural steps every applicant must follow. Below is an annotated walkthrough of those instructions, translated into practical issuer actions.

Pre-Application Preparation

Before submitting a formal application, the issuer should conduct an internal readiness review covering governance compliance, financial-statement completeness, and share-register accuracy. Industry observers recommend scheduling an informal pre-application meeting with the PCMA to identify any gaps in documentation, confirm the current capital threshold, and clarify translation or legalisation requirements for foreign issuers. This step is not formally mandated but significantly reduces the risk of a protracted correction cycle.

Submission of the Application File

The PCMA instructions require the company to submit a complete application file containing, at minimum:

• Application form. The official PCMA listing application, completed and signed by an authorised signatory.
• Board resolution and general assembly minutes. Certified copies authorising the listing.
• Audited financial statements. Three years, as described above.
• Prospectus. Full draft meeting PCMA content requirements.
• Corporate governance documentation. Governance statement, board CVs, audit-committee charter.
• Articles of association. Certified copy; for foreign issuers, translated and legalised.
• Shareholder register. Current register with free-float calculation.
• Underwriting or placement agreement. If the listing involves a public offering.

PCMA Review and Correction Rounds

Once the file is received, the PCMA conducts a substantive review covering legal compliance, financial adequacy, prospectus completeness and governance standards. The Authority may issue one or more correction requests, requiring the company to amend its prospectus, provide supplementary disclosures, or cure governance deficiencies, before granting approval. Each correction round restarts the review clock, making thorough initial preparation critical to meeting target timelines.

Approval and Listing Coordination with PEX

Upon PCMA approval, the company coordinates with PEX to finalise the listing date, complete exchange-specific administrative filings, and arrange market announcements. PEX assigns a trading symbol and integrates the company’s shares into its electronic trading system. The issuer is then subject to PEX’s ongoing disclosure and reporting rules from the first day of trading.

Practical tip: assemble the application file early and submit it as a single complete package. Incomplete submissions are the most common cause of delays in the PEX listing process.

Free Float Requirement for the Palestine Exchange

The free float is the proportion of a company’s issued shares that are available for trading by public investors, excluding shares held by founders, directors, controlling shareholders and other locked-up parties. The free float requirement for the Palestine Exchange is set by the PCMA and PEX rules; issuers should confirm the current minimum percentage directly with the Authority, as this threshold may be updated by regulation or circular.

In practice, the PCMA expects the company to demonstrate, both at the time of listing and on an ongoing basis, that a meaningful portion of its shares is freely tradable. Where the initial shareholder base is concentrated, the company will typically need to conduct a public offering or private placement to disperse shares before listing.

Strategies commonly used to meet or maintain the free-float requirement include:

• Secondary public offering. Existing shareholders sell a block of shares to institutional or retail investors.
• Initial public offering (IPO). The company issues new shares to the public, simultaneously raising capital and achieving dispersion.
• Strategic-investor lock-up expiry. Negotiating shorter lock-up periods to accelerate free-float compliance.
• Employee share-ownership plans. Allocating shares to employees broadens the shareholder base.

The likely practical effect for a company whose founding shareholders hold the vast majority of shares is that early engagement with a licensed underwriter or placement agent will be necessary well before the PCMA filing date.

Disclosure, Prospectus and Ongoing Obligations

Prospectus Contents and Filing

The PCMA requires every listing applicant to prepare a prospectus that provides investors with a fair and complete picture of the company’s business, financial position and risks. At minimum, the prospectus must include:

• Business description and corporate history. Nature of operations, organisational structure, key subsidiaries.
• Risk factors. Material risks, market, operational, regulatory, legal, presented in order of significance.
• Audited financial statements. Three years of IFRS-compliant financials plus any interim statements.
• Use of proceeds. Where the listing is accompanied by a capital raise, a clear breakdown of how funds will be deployed.
• Directors and management. CVs, compensation disclosure, related-party transactions.
• Capital structure. Share classes, voting rights, dividend policy.

The prospectus is filed with the PCMA as part of the application package and is subject to detailed review. The Authority may require amendments before granting clearance for publication.

Continuous Disclosure and Inside-Information Rules

Once listed, the company assumes ongoing disclosure obligations under both the PCMA regulations and PEX rules. These include the publication of quarterly and annual financial statements within prescribed deadlines, immediate notification of material events or inside information that may affect the share price, and compliance with insider-trading prohibitions. The company must also file AGM notices and resolutions with the PCMA and PEX promptly after each general assembly meeting.

How to List on Palestine Securities Exchange, Timelines and the PEX Listing Process

The end-to-end PEX listing process involves several sequential stages. The timeline below represents typical durations; actual timings vary depending on the complexity of the application, the number of correction rounds, and external factors such as audit scheduling and subscription-payment processing.

Common bottlenecks: late delivery of audit reports, incomplete governance documentation, and, increasingly relevant in 2026, delays in subscription-payment processing caused by the cash-transaction cap under Decree-Law No. (4) of 2026 (see below). Issuers should build contingency time into the subscription stage and ensure that prospectus payment instructions reference bank-transfer arrangements exclusively for amounts exceeding ILS 30,000.

Practical Implications of Decree-Law No. (4) of 2026 on the PEX Listing Process

Decree-Law No. (4) of 2026 restricts cash transactions to a maximum of ILS 30,000. For prospective PEX issuers, this affects subscription receipts during an IPO or public offering, underwriting settlement flows and the escrow mechanisms used to hold investor funds pending share allotment. Any subscription payment exceeding the cash cap must be made by bank transfer, wire or RTGS, a requirement that must be clearly disclosed in the prospectus.

Practical steps issuers and lead managers should take include:

• Prospectus disclosure. Include explicit payment-method instructions stating that subscriptions above ILS 30,000 must be paid via bank transfer.
• Escrow bank arrangements. Establish a designated escrow account at a licensed Palestinian bank to receive subscription proceeds.
• Investor communication. Notify prospective subscribers in advance of the electronic-payment requirement to avoid processing delays.
• Underwriter coordination. Ensure the underwriting agreement addresses compliance with the cash cap and allocates responsibility for investor payment verification.

Reporting Obligations by Entity Type, Comparison Table

Conclusion, Next Steps for Prospective PEX Issuers

Understanding how to list on Palestine Securities Exchange PDF instructions and regulatory requirements is the first step toward a successful listing. Prospective issuers should begin with an internal readiness assessment against the PCMA’s obligatory listing instructions, engage a PCMA-licensed auditor early, and build the subscription and payment infrastructure required by Decree-Law No. (4) of 2026. For tailored guidance on eligibility, document preparation and regulatory strategy, prospective issuers are encouraged to consult with qualified Palestinian corporate and capital-markets counsel.

Sources

1. Palestinian Capital Market Authority, Obligatory Listing of Shareholding Companies Instructions (PDF)
2. Palestine Exchange (PEX), Official Site
3. An-Najah University Law & Economics Journal, Study on PSE Listing Regulations
4. Palestine Economy Library, Institutional Report on Strengthening PSE