CEO Letter - November

By: Nandini Sukumar, Chief Executive Officer, The World Federation of Exchanges Nov 2018

Dear Colleagues

Welcome to the November issue of Focus.

This week the WFE signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the African Securities Exchanges Association (ASEA), aimed at supporting the development of the wider African capital market. We are delighted to announce this ground-breaking collaboration with ASEA because whilst the WFE’s market development mandate has always been a key pillar of the federation, this agreement crystallises our vision to support members in specific regions with targeted activity. We look forward to engaging more deeply on the topics that matter to African market infrastructures, and further growing our knowledge and relationships in this vibrant continent.

This month’s Executive Profile, Zhengqiang Li, Chairman, Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) is an opportunity for all of us to think on the current status and future trends of the global derivatives market.

Last time Focus spoke to Chairman Li (October 2016) he outlined the drivers behind the strong growth in commodity derivatives volumes, and DCE’s strong performance in that market. This month, he updates us on strategic developments at DCE, and explains why membership of the WFE is so important to the exchange, as he hosted the 3rd China & Global Derivatives Market Development Forum, which was held in partnership between the DCE and Global Investor Group.

We also feature a Q&A with Alina Aldambergen, Chairman of Management Board, Kazakhstan Stock Exchange JSC (KASE).This year marks the 25thanniversary of the launch of the exchange, and Alina traces its roots from national foreign exchange market to its role today as a universal exchange.

The Kazakhstan Stock Exchange Forum took place in November, titled ‘The Role of stock exchanges in the economy's sustainable development’, and brought together more than 300 participants, with 30 speakers sharing their viewpoints on topics including the Kazakhstan stock market and FinTech. This month we include a summary of the Forum in the magazine.

As we highlighted last month, the WFE took a very active role in the recent UNCTAD World Investment Forum in Geneva, where we spoke at the event's Grand Opening, moderated the SSE Global Dialogue, and also participated in the WFE/UNCTAD panel on sustainability, commodities and derivatives.

We are delighted to feature two member exchanges that also took part in the SSE Global Dialogue: The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) and Bourse de Casablanca.

Pakorn Peetathawatchai, President, The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) writes about how the Thai exchange is encouraging its companies to adopt sustainable practices and better sustainability reporting. And Karim Hajji, CEO, Bourse de Casablanca updates us on the initiatives it is undertaking to move towards a financial system with long-term economic growth that takes into account its environmental and social impact.

We feature a piece on the African Domestic Bond Fund (ADBF) - the first Pan-African Sovereign Bond Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) - which was recently listed by the Stock Exchange of Mauritius (SEM). And we learn more about the ‘Digitisation, Disruption & Financial Inclusion' workshop organised by the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) in Lagos.

This month also saw the formal launch of our new website and members’ portalDigital communications is a key element of our engagement with industry stakeholders and our membership base, and we are thrilled to be able to showcase our work, our statistics, and our thought leadership through these innovative websites.

The WFE Research Team has published its latest dashboard, market statistics, and monthly insights piece, which examines market activity as reflected by value and volumes of trades in equities and ETFs against the backdrop of a global stock market sell-off in October 2018.

With just a few weeks until the end of the year, we are already looking forward to a very active 2019. We kick off with the January Working Committee which will take place in London on Tuesday 22 January 2019. There will be more details to follow in due course.  We are also well underway with planning for our annual IOMA: WFE’s Clearing & Derivatives Conference 2019, which will take place 2-4 April in Mumbai; our second Working Committee meeting (Wednesday 12 June, Zurich); and our bi-annual Technology Conference, which next year will be held 30 June-2 July in Umea, Sweden. Watch this space for more information about the events and registration details.

Thank you.