Federación Iberoamericana de Bolsas

FIAB Objectives

Federación Iberoamericana de Bolsas has the following objectives:

A) Foster cooperation among its Members, in order to promote the development and advancement of their securities markets, in the best interests of all market participants;

B) Cooperate with national and international entities having legislative, regulatory, or other functions related to financial and securities markets with the aim of ensuring homogeneous standards and regulations as to securities issuance, circulation, distribution, and registration; trading; issuers; brokers; securities markets; securities depositories and custodians;  as well as in connection with any fiscal and other issues deemed to be relevant to market development;[[[—foto—]]]

C) Promote integration of the Federation’s securities markets, stimulating interactivity among market participants as well as the free circulation, within their respective jurisdictions, of securities issued in any of its Members home countries;

D) Encourage the establishment of rules and procedures ensuring solvency, competence, legitimacy, and fair information disclosure to all savers investing through Member Exchanges.

Claudio Zuchovicki - Secretary General

History

The Federación Iberoamericana de Bolsas , formerly named as Federación Iberoamericana de Bolsas y Mercados de Valores, was founded on September 27, 1973 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Ever since its inception, its purpose has been to facilitate the participation and channeling of people’s savings in order to stimulate public and private sector productive processes, to encourage the improvement of stock exchanges and securities markets to such effect, as well as to promote cooperation for economic and financial integration, and convergence into unified standards, practices, and usages. The Federation could act as a representative for its members before international bodies and national authorities, if required.

Delegates from the Stock Exchanges of Barcelona, Bilbao, Bogota, Buenos Aires, Caracas, Cordoba, El Salvador, Estado de Miranda, Guadalajara, Lima, Madrid, Mar del Plata, Mexico, Monterrey, Montevideo, Quito, Rio de Janeiro, Santiago, Sao Paulo, and the Mercado de Valores de Buenos Aires were the FIAB founding members.

The initial steps towards the FIAB formation date back to 1945, with the organization of consultative meetings promoted by the Consejo Interamericano de Comercio y Producción (CICYP). Throughout a long period of 25 years, the interested stock exchanges and securities markets participated in the first Hemispheric Conferences, which later developed into the Meetings of Stock Exchanges and Securities Markets of the Americas. The turning point for the FIAB formation was the Meeting of Stock Exchanges and Securities Markets convened by the Latin-American Free Trade Association (LAFTA) in April 1970, and the subsequent invitation by the Colegio de Agentes de Cambio and Bolsa de Madrid to attend an industry meeting in October 1971.

Between its foundation and 1980, the Federation expanded its activity across different technical areas. As from 1973, both the Information and Training Centers operated in Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro, respectively, as coordinated by the Secretary General. The Federation’s seat was established in Rio de Janeiro in 1975, when the organization was renamed into Federación Iberoamericana de Bolsas de Valores (FIABV). In 1976, the FIABV decided to set up a Working Committee consisting of the CEOs and General Managers of the Federation’s member exchanges.

In 1977, the Federation’s headquarter was finally established in the offices of Bolsa de Comercio de Buenos Aires. By 1980, the Federation went through a reorganization process whereby the Information and Training Centers were reunified, their tasks remaining in charge of the Secretary General. By then, the publications released by the Federation included a bi-monthly Newsletter, an Annual Report, Statistical Reports, and a Loose-Leaf Binder with qualitative information on member exchanges.

Between September 1983 and April 1984, the Federation acquired legal personality and it moved to the first of its offices in the City of Buenos Aires. This process of physical and institutional expansion would continue throughout all the decade, with the formation of the IT Committee, the Past Presidents’ Committee, and the creation of the Library.

In 1993, the Federation restructured its Governing Council, and it amended its bylaws, thereby including an Executive Committee and providing for the creation of Working Sub-Committees which would absorb and extend the duties until then performed by the Working Committee and the IT Committee. The development of specific tasks and technical and cooperation activities increased all over the 1990s, being organized around six different Working Sub-Committees: International Standards and Self-Regulation, Transactions and New Products, Training, Multinational Integration Affairs, Market Technology, and Clearing and Settlement.

As from November 1998, the tasks performed by the technical work teams are reorganized into a single Working Sub-Committee, which has remained active up until the present day with the participation of experts from most member exchanges.

The dynamics of regional markets and the growing diversification of products traded thereon, together with the incorporation of derivatives markets and other financial products, led the Annual General Meeting held in Oaxaca, Mexico, in September 2002, to admit as FIAB members stock exchanges, as well as exchanges trading other financial instruments and Associations of exchanges trading securities and other financial instruments, thus adjusting the Federation’s name accordingly which has, from then onwards, been referred to as Federación Iberoamericana de Bolsas (FIAB).

The goal of development and integration of securities markets, pursued by the Federation since its inception, translated into a major achievement known as the Regional Securities Market Strengthening and Development Project which was, under the scope of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Regional Public Goods Initiative, carried out by the FIAB between 2005 and 2008. The tasks performed within the framework of such initiative laid solid foundations for member exchanges to advance in the present decade towards the cross-border integration of their markets in Latin America.

In line with the goal of cooperation with authorities, in April 2008 the FIAB and the IIMV –an organization granting membership to market regulatory and supervisory authorities- have signed an institutional cooperation agreement supporting an active agenda where one should highlight the IIMV-FIAB Joint Meetings of Presidents of member institutions. In 2012, the 10th Joint Meeting will be held in December.

Finally, this brief summary should underscore the significant and most valuable cooperation maintained by the FIAB with other regional federations of exchanges and, very particularly, with the World Federation of Exchanges.