CEO Letter - March 2018
Dear Colleagues
Welcome to the March issue of Focus, where we look back at the recent WFE SME Conference in Valletta, hosted by the Malta Stock Exchange (MSE). The WFE would like to thank our very wonderful hosts for their outstanding hospitality in what is truly a remarkable city and country.
In the Executive Interview section, we are delighted to welcome SME Conference host Joseph Portelli, Chairman, Malta Stock Exchange (MSE), who talks to us about the impact of the recent WFE SME Conference in Malta, outlines the exchange's strong focus on SMEs, including its Prospects MTF platform, and shares exciting plans to modernise, institutionalise and internationalise the exchange.
This issue features three participants from the WFE SME Conference. First up, we have Ungad Chadda, SVP, Head of Enterprise Strategy & Former President, Capital Formation, TMX Group, who chaired the in-person WFE SME Working Group meeting on SME Finance, and also took part in a panel focused on new models for SME market-based financing. He writes about the key discussion points from the panel, observing that it is smaller companies that, in aggregate, drive a substantial amount of economic development.
We also feature Hanita Othman, Vice President, Primary Market, Listing Development, Bursa Malaysia (BM). Hanita participated on a panel about global perspectives and solutions for SME markets, and writes here about how BM has helped fund raising efforts by SMEs, including through its ACE Market, an alternative market for emerging companies of all sizes and sectors to raise capital.
Our third WFE SME Conference contributor is Dr Zeng Bin, Researcher, Research Institute, Shenzhen Stock Exchange (SZSE)who took part in a panel focused on the recent WFE report on listing family-run businesses. In this issue, Zeng shares with us the experience of financing SMEs in China.
It has been an incredibly busy few weeks for the WFE’s Research Team. At the WFE SME Conference in Malta, the team launched a WFE report into family businesses, investigating the opportunities and challenges for family firms when considering public equity as a source of funding. Following this, they published a joint report with global management consultancy McKinsey & Company's Banking & Securities Practice on the fintech landscape in the Capital Markets Infrastructure (CMI) industry. Both pieces of work have been driven by their respective WFE Working Groups (SME Working Group and Fintech Working Group), and seek to push the debate in these key areas.
We welcome a contribution from Kesara Manchusree, President, The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) who outlines how the Thai market successfully moved to a T+2 settlement cycle earlier this month.
And we celebrate the 65 exchanges who took part in ‘Ring the Bell for Gender Equality’ to celebrate International Women’s Day 2018. Thirty-two WFE members joined the initiative between 5-9 March to promote female economic empowerment.
The 35th IOMA: The WFE’s Clearing & Derivatives Conference in Chicago, with host OCC (Options Clearing Corporation) is less than two weeks away, from Wednesday 11 April through to Friday 13 April 2018. We have an outstanding line-up of key note speakers, panellists and themes over the two-day conference, with a selection of the industry’s most influential post-trade voices.
In addition, we will be launching a joint WFE-Oliver Wyman paper at the event, entitled ‘Market Infrastructures and Market Integrity: A Post-Crisis Journey and a Vision for the Future’. The report focuses on the evolving role of exchanges and CCPs in supporting market integrity, and shares a vision for how this role can be shaped to ensure market integrity in the future.
If you haven’t yet registered for IOMA, you can still do so here.
We look forward to welcoming you to the Windy City next month, and wish you safe travels.