BME has decided to acquire a 10% stake in the Colombian new Central Counterparty (CCP).
The aim of this entity is to ensure an orderly functioning of buy and sell orders on stock markets. Initially the CCP will guarantee the completion of transactions on options and futures markets. Subsequently, in the near future, it will also guarantee the completion of trades on the equities and fixed income markets, as well as buy-purchase transactions linked to other types of assets, such as those associated with power generation.
The new company, to which BME has contributed its know how and electronic platform, will be called Cámara de Riesgo Central de Contraparte de Colombia. Apart from BME, its major shareholders are the Bolsa de Valores de Colombia (BVC), the Depósito Centralizado de Valores de Colombia (DECEVAL), as well as different financial institutions and stock dealer firms. The number of shareholders in the CCP totals 38.
The Spanish Exchange has cooperated with Bolsa de Colombia and the Colombian stock market regulator to develop a legal and regulatory framework that suits the activities developed by the Colombian CCP.
In the future, BME will contribute further to formulating the regulations and circulars that the new entity requires and will provide the applications and IT needed for it to operate smoothly.
This initiative provides new evidence of BME's growing presence in Latin American markets and its commitment to furthering its cooperation in the region, where five markets already run on the Spanish electronic trading platform SIBE, including the stock exchanges of Caracas, Quito, Montevideo, Dominican Republic and El Salvador. In addition, BME's market access platform, Visual Trader, is in operation in Chile.
Besides selling its own equities and derivatives IT systems abroad - the Mexican MEXDER derivatives market, in which BME owns a stake, uses MEFF's (BME's future and options market) trading platform - BME is actively developing projects in other Latin American regions. These includes initiatives relating to consultancy in Colombia and Guatemala, market data dissemination in Mexico and Fixed Income in Colombia.