CEO Letter - September 2019
Dear Colleagues,
Welcome to the September issue of Focus.
After the exchange's recent successful IPO, in the Executive Profile section we hear from Ittai Ben Zeev, Chief Executive Officer, Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) about why technology and innovation is so important for his organisation and country, and how the IPO positions TASE for the future.
Dr Urs Rüegsegger, Chairman of the WFE, delivered a speech at the 46th General Assembly & Annual Meeting of the Ibero-American Federation of Exchanges (FIAB) earlier this month. His speech focused on some of the WFE’s strategic priorities for 2019 including: regulatory coherence or market fragmentation; technology-related policy work on topics such as crypto assets; and the importance of valuing stock market data correctly. You can read the full text of his speech in the magazine.
We are delighted to welcome Rob Palatnick, Chief Technology Architect, The Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC), who discusses the role of governance in the growth of DLT, following the firm’s recent white paper, Governing DLT Networks, Distributed Ledger Technology Governance for Private Permissioned Networks.
Last month, I had the pleasure of being a judge for Singapore Exchange’s second edition of the SGX Orb Awards, which seeks to recognise excellence in financial news and content. This month, we welcome the six winners who were announced on 21 August 2019, each of whom gives their perspectives on winning a prestigious Orb.
Today marks the start of the third annual World Investor Week 2019 (WIW), where securities regulators, stock exchanges, international organisations, investor associations and other stakeholders from almost 90 countries are planning activities to increase awareness of investor education and protection in their jurisdictions. This year, we are working in partnership with IOSCO on a new initiative called ‘Ring the Bell for Financial Literacy’, and this week, more than 30 WFE exchanges and CCPs around the world will unite to promote financial literacy and boost financial inclusion, ringing their bells in multiple countries on multiple days all week during WIW.
In keeping with the financial literacy theme, Dr. Liangping Xu, Director of Investor Education Center, Shenzhen Stock Exchange writes about how the exchange is empowering investors through various investor education services, such as interactive rather than traditional lecture-style investor education, and the use of social media.
We hear from Hamish Macdonald, Head of External Relations & General Counsel, NZX who takes us through the recently-published industry-led review entitled Capital Markets 2029, initiated by NZX and the Financial Markets Authority (FMA). Designed to deliver a 10-year vision and growth agenda for New Zealand’s capital markets, the report outlines the ambition to grow the market capitalisation of New Zealand’s equity markets over the coming years.
It’s been a very busy month for all things ESG. Firstly, the WFE has partnered with the United Nations Sustainable Stock Exchanges (SSE) initiative to define ‘How exchanges can embed sustainability within their operations: a blueprint to advance action’. The blueprint addresses WFE Sustainability Principle 5, which encourages exchanges to establish effective internal governance and operational processes and policies to support their sustainability efforts. It is a practical guidance document, aimed at assisting exchanges in translating the WFE’s fifth Sustainability Principle into concrete actions, guiding them towards embedding sustainability into their own exchange operations.
In addition, we have formalised our partnership with SSE, agreeing to work together on building capacity, technical assistance to stakeholders, joint publications and research. We look forward to many more years of cooperation and development work with SSE, as the initiative continues to evolve and grow its sustainability mandate.
We include a Q&A with Noppakao Sucharitakul, Executive Vice President, Head of Social Development Group and Corporate Communication, The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET), who tells us more about role that CSR plays in the organisation. Indeed, the aim of SET is to be a social platform committed to creating social benefits, promoting the growth of social enterprise and building a network for social development.
Olumide Orojimi, Head, Corporate Communications, The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) writes about the signing of one of Africa’s biggest musicians, Innocent Tuface Idibia (Tuface) as its first Good Cause Ambassador. Tuface’s focus on promoting social causes, such as raising awareness on peace, aligns with the NSE’s commitment to creating sustainable value for its stakeholders as well as increasing social impact, in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The WFE’s Regulatory Affairs team has been working on two key advocacy issues on both sides of the Atlantic this month: market data and market fragmentation. It has responded to the European Securities and Markets Authority’s (ESMA) consultation paper on prices for pre- and post-trade data and the consolidated tape for equity instruments, and also proposed improvements to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) non-US CCP supervision proposals.
The WFE Statistics team is delighted to announce the launch of Exchange Traded Products (ETP) market capitalisation – a new WFE indicator. This month, the team introduces this important new indictor to you all, and explains why the WFE will be including this in its data from now on. You can also find our latest monthly dashboard and market statistics data.
We are now just days away from the 59th General Assembly & Annual Meeting (Singapore, 8-10 October 2019). The two-day conference will focus on the critical topics that form the strategic pillars of the WFE’s own policy and research work, such as market integrity, market data, and sustainability. We look forward to seeing many of you there, to hear from a roster of industry leading speakers; to network and build even stronger relationships; and to leverage each other’s expertise to suggest solutions and share best practice across our sector. This is a truly unique event, as WFE members and stakeholders from all over the world gather to discuss the future of the industry and unite on the issues that matter to us. We wish you safe travels to Singapore.