FEAS Yearbook FEAS Yearbook 2011 | Page 117

FEDERATION OF EURO-ASIAN STOCK EXCHANGES ANNUAL REPORT APRIL 2011 TEHRAN STOCK EXCHANGE Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE) is one of the largest growing markets in the Middle East with 341 listed companies and 87 securities firms (as of December 2010). Hassan Ghalibaf CEO Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE) is one of the largest growing markets in the Middle East with 341 listed companies and 87 securities firms (as of December 2010). TSE has recently finalized its five-year Strategic Plan under the vision of An Excellent Exchange in the Region and a Driver for Economic Growth in the Country. This plan also determines Mission, Values, Objectives, and Strategies. investment culture in the country and plan for obtaining ISO 27001 certification for TSE's IT Security Management System. Our response to the challenges is to pay special attention to sustaining and improving the attractiveness and competitiveness of our market, with liquidity and efficiency. The Strategic Plan exemplifies our dedication to quality and demonstrates our commitment to keep our markets in line with the evolving world standards. While addressing them, we also take the opportunity to secure some notable advances for TSE and increase our attractiveness for both issuers and investors. We embarked on significant market and regulatory reforms to facilitate raising capital by issuers. Under the three concepts of transparency, efficiency and integrity, our efforts are directed to activating the market by discovering local companies through TSE comprehensive marketing plan and developing new projects such as educational programs for promoting public TSE continues to strive for the establishment of a strong presence as a major global exchange. In promoting international relationship and creating opportunities, we are discussing with index providers to enhance our benchmark index. Online trading as a new service will be supported HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE) was founded in 1967, by starting with only six listed companies. Since then, the Exchange has experienced considerable changes in the path of development. Today, three years after its demutualization, which took place on 6 December 2006, TSE has gradually demonstrated its potentiality as a leading Exchange in the region and developed into an ever-growing marketplace, including more than three hundred listed companies with a market capitalization of above US$ 60 billion. The mission is setting the agenda for the change in the Iranian securities markets. TSE must be more than a mere market facilitator and ought to be able to guide industries towards new horizons and greater opportunities, as it is actually doing through the strict regulations and listing standards. TSE is aiming at promoting the Iranian Capital Market to respond to the socio-economic development needs of the nation. The Exchange helps and stimulates industrial, as well as economic growth and development of the country's financial sector. TSE is preparing to maintain a strong and transparent market in order to give opportunity to the investors to convert their cash into securities at a fair and honest price and vice versa, and is developing to become a highly liquid secondary market for securities to raise funds and win confidence from all stakeholders. TSE is planning to operate as a world-class marketplace for Iranian securities and derivatives products. It strives to offer issuers access to a wide national marketplace. It must make a contribution to Iran's status as an economy, which intends to open-up to international financial centers. By servicing Iran's substantial long-term demand for capital and exchange services in accordance with international standards and practices, it is believed that TSE has the potential to become one of the pre-eminent Exchanges in the Persian Gulf area. Privatization, as a priority is both followed by the State and managed by TSE on the one hand, to facilitate the economic reforms, and on the other one, to improve and support the Iranian securities market. In this fashion, among the floated companies since January 2009, shares of some state-owned banks and insurance companies were traded for the first time in the Exchange. For the coming year, introducing derivatives is in the agenda. FUTURE OUTLOOK In the year 2011, Tehran Stock Exchange will make efforts to implement its Strategic Plan which exemplifies our dedication to quality and demonstrates our commitment to keep our markets in line with evolving world standards. The Strategic Plan determines our vision; "To become an excellent Exchange in the region and a driver for economic growth in the country" by in Tehran Stock Exchange with a highly efficient, modern, and user-friendly system, which will allow customers to place their orders directly to the Exchange's trading system and set their own bid/ask prices from all over the world. This facility offers brokers the opportunity to concentrate more on the added value services, such as professional advisory and market analysis and lower their operating costs. We are committed to safeguarding and expanding the investments of our clients by utilizing all our resources and maximizing the stakeholder's benefits. That is designed to evolve alongside the emerging trends in the international markets. At TSE, sustainable improvement is an unending process. We strive to adopt the highest standards of the operations and quality control, according to the international standards and are constantly upgrading the expertise of our team. increasing the share of the capital market in the local economy, effective execution of regulations for market integrity and protecting the investors, employing new technologies and practices for broadening the market, developing the finance literacy and public investment culture in the country, facilitating access to the market through employing the latest IT techniques, and considering the principles of accountability and transparency and improve the communication between TSE and its stakeholders to further strengthening their trust in the market. Under the three concepts of "transparency", "efficiency" and "integrity", our efforts are directed to attract the big companies to be listed in the market through TSE's comprehensive marketing plan and developing new projects such as educational programs for promoting public investment culture in the country and plan for obtaining ISO27001 certification for its IT Security Management System. In addition, TSE will also provide the potentials for designing more investment products such as exchange traded funds (ETFs) and index-based derivatives instruments that Tehran Stock Exchange has planned to introduce this year. We are working on the expansion of risk-hedge functions, as the trading products in response to investors' needs are extended. PAGE 115