Boerse Stuttgart marked its 150th anniversary on this date with a celebration at the Liederhalle Culture and Convention Centre in Stuttgart. Addressing the around 500 guests in his opening speech, Christoph Lammersdorf, CEO of Boerse Stuttgart Holding GmbH, laid out Boerse Stuttgart’s strategic ambitions: to build further on its existing position as Germany’s biggest exchange for retail investors and as Europe’s leading specialist stock exchange for securitised derivatives. The event was attended by prominent figures from business and politics, and the list of speakers included Wolfgang Schäuble, the Federal Minister of Finance, and Ernst Pfister, Minister of Economic Affairs of the Federal State of Baden-Württemberg.
Christoph Lammersdorf emphasised the Stock Exchange’s recent track record of success in its retail investment business. With information technology now playing an increasingly important role in international stock exchange trading, he noted that Boerse Stuttgart had established itself as a leading exchange and a provider of innovative services to retail investors in Germany. Looking ahead at the next ten years of Germany’s stock exchange landscape Christoph Lammersdorf believes that “in the medium term there will be two types of stock markets in Germany – one for institutional and international investors and another for retail investors and less liquid securities.”
Commenting on the development of global networks of international financial markets, the Chief Executive Officer emphasised Boerse Stuttgart’s unique approach: “We don’t trust blindly in machines and fully automated systems; instead, we have made a conscious decision to combine human expertise with electronic trading. In Stuttgart, our focus is clearly on people – traders on the one hand and investors on the other.” As an example of this, he cited Stuttgart’s system of Quality Liquidity Providers (QLP), stock market experts who monitor the electronic trading system and intervene where necessary to avoid partial executions and jumps in prices.
In Christoph Lammersdorf’s view, the merger between Deutsche Börse and NYSE Euronext does not represent a threat but rather “an opportunity for Stuttgart’s stock market to continue growing”. He believes that Deutsche Börse may well lose sight of the retail investor business as a result of greater automation and an increasing focus on institutional investors.
With regard to the task of building up private assets, freedom and responsibility, he observed, lie in the hands of investors themselves, and the important criteria here are fairness and the regulation and surveillance of markets rather than the supervision of private investment decisions. In this context, Christoph Lammersdorf said that investor education has a key role to play: “To ensure that investors are in a position to make the right investment decisions, we need to expand the opportunities people have to learn about investing. I see this as an important objective of social policy. For me, education is the best kind of investor protection. It’s never too early to start teaching people how to invest. That is why we are in favour of introducing Finance as a topic within the Economics curriculum in further and higher education.”
Hans-Jörg Vetter, Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of the association Vereinigung Baden-Wuerttembergische Wertpapierboerse e.V., spoke about the Stuttgart Stock Exchange’s varied history up to the present day and underlined the role played by Stuttgart’s stockbrokers, whose smart decision to focus on retail investors beginning in the mid-1990s had provided the spark for Boerse Stuttgart’s repositioning. According to Hans-Jörg Vetter, “they deserve much of the credit for the fact that we are here today celebrating this anniversary.”
Ernst Pfister, Minister of Economic Affairs of the Federal State of Baden-Württemberg, congratulated the Stuttgart Stock Exchange on behalf of the federal state government: “This is a 150-year old success story. Today, with an order share that accounts for nearly 40 percent of Germany’s floor trading, Boerse Stuttgart has established itself as the country’s second-biggest stock exchange and its leading centre for retail investors. Boerse Stuttgart has achieved this by virtue of a business model that is specially geared towards this group of customers.”
The Minister drew attention to the Boerse Stuttgart’s proven track record of innovation as a crucial factor in its success: “Time and time again, Boerse Stuttgart has made headlines by introducing new products and trading segments. The new Bondm market segment launched in May 2010 not only demonstrates the Stuttgart Stock Exchange’s capacity to innovate; it also provides small and medium-sized enterprises with a pioneering new source of financing. Bondm is tailored to the specific needs of SMEs and gives them direct access to the capital markets.”
In his speech, Germany’s Minister of Finance, Dr Wolfgang Schäuble, underlined the importance of the euro as a single currency: “By taking every step we can to protect the euro, we are acting in our own future interest. We need a Europe with a strong financial policy.” He congratulated Boerse Stuttgart and wished it “another 150 years of success in what is likely to be a rapidly changing framework”. The Minister of Finance stated his view that, to a certain extent, the Stock Exchange was symbolic of a healthy and diversified order and a market model that responded to the needs of its customers and the region.