FEDERATION OF EURO-ASIAN STOCK EXCHANGES
ANNUAL REPORT JUNE 2010
FEDERATION OF EURO-ASIAN STOCK EXCHANGES
Aftab Ahmad Chaudhry
Secretary General
South Asian Federation of Exchanges
It is heartening to note that the Federation
of Euro-Asian Stock Exchanges (FEAS) is
celebrating 15th anniversary of its
foundation. The journey of 15 years has
been quite remarkable for the Federation
and it has grown from strength to strength
during all these years. It is quite good to
know that FEAS has now been
transformed into a vibrant organization
providing a platform for enhanced co-
operation, mutual consultations and
sharing of experiences amongst a large
number of its member stock exchanges.
The regional bodies of the exchanges
enable their members to build network
effect with the other exchanges and
enable them to leverage their potential,
domain knowledge and experience to
help attract foreign investments and
unlock the potential of their individual and
combined markets. After the recent spell
of global recession and economic
meltdown, greater cooperation amongst
the markets is now, more than ever, the
need of the hour and it has become
imperative to draw from the strengths of
the diversified and efficient markets so as
to achieve the common goal of the
integration of the markets and a unified
system of market regulation. As the
challenge before all nations is to
restructure and reshape their markets to
be more competitive, broad-based, and
relevant to their domestic economies,
therefore the bodies like FEAS can play a
very active role in connecting these
disparate markets and help achieve the
sort of harmonization which results in the
broadening of the investment options for
the investors.
Financial markets in FEAS region are
experiencing intense growth and diversity.
Some of the fast growing emerging and
frontier markets are located in this region
besides having one of the most dynamic
and enterprising professional community
well conversant with the nuances of
trading, technology and operations. FEAS
exchanges, besides having led in the
creation of new markets and financial
products, have also introduced several
rounds of reforms in the recent period,
which have given a big boost to the
growth of the financial services industry.
There is a major spurt in the region in
terms of institutions, intermediaries and
investors each reinforcing with one
another-making FEAS region as one of
the most vibrant regions that is further
poised for attracting huge interest from
the international investors.
Whereas over the years, the FEAS has
become an important institution for the
promotion of cross border cooperation in
the exchange industry, and for developing
a strategy for mutual cooperation
amongst its constituent exchanges,
however for the next phase of growth, it is
critical that FEAS reaches out to other
sister organizations of exchanges such as
the South Asian Federation of Exchanges
(SAFE) so as to discuss the ways of
promoting inter regional cooperation. As
the wave of consolidation has already
made many major exchanges to tie up
with some prominent regional exchanges
of the World, so the mutual cooperation
between FEAS and SAFE may also lead
to some further inter regional linking up of
the businesses of some of our member
exchanges. While it may take some time
to happen, but at the least the spirit of
cooperation can certainly lead us to
improve and standardize the operations
of our respective exchange industries. The
closer interaction may also enable us to
learn from the experiences of each other
and implement the best practices for the
industry practitioners such as the
intermediaries, the broker dealers, and the
security analysts etc. Furthermore, both
the sister organizations can also work
towards the development of the exchange
industry specific human resource by
instituting programs for bilateral training &
study visits to each other’s member
exchanges. SAFE is very keen to boost
such a cooperation to ensure that both
FEAS and SAFE are positioned to reap
the benefits of our combined synergies.
Towards this end, SAFE has already
proposed the signing of a MoU between
our Federations so as to kick start the
process of cooperation between us.
Furthermore, SAFE is also willing to
extend an “Affiliate Body” status to FEAS
so that FEAS members can participate in
the events and programs organized by
SAFE, which are the best vehicles to
promote cooperation and goodwill
between our Federations and our
respective Members. SAFE would keenly
look forward to further development in this
regard.
At the end, I once again congratulate
FEAS for completing 15 years of its
purposeful existence and wish it the best
during the times ahead.
PAGE 15