With an eye towards the increasing globalisation of securities exchanges, she stated that, "Within four years, there will be one electronic order book for each publicly traded security in the world. Via the Internet, the influence and power of investors and issuers is becoming so potent that they ultimately will succeed in having their needs met ... because those investors and issuers want a simple means of obtaining the best possible price that's to be had, and this in a transparent, secure, and well-supervised pool of global liquidity."
The president of FESE, Jean-François Théodore who is chairman of ParisBourse, pointed out the central function of this exchange federation: the representation of common interests in respect of legislative developments within the EU as well as in relationships with other financial centres, in particular the USA. FESE has inaugurated a competition for outstanding academic achievement in matters related to the European securities markets. The first winner of this prize is Prof. Harald Hau, a German citizen who today teaches in France. In his work entitled "Information and Geography: Evidence from the German Stock Market", he relates how the geographic proximity a trader has to the headquarters of a listed company can provide that person with a significant edge on information and thus a stock market advantage. Other dimensions, such as the trader's being situated in a large financial centre, provide no comparable advantages.
In his keynote speech, Dr. Henri B. Meier, CFO of the Roche Group and chairman of Givaudan - which by coincidence saw its initial public listing on the same day - formulated his demands on securities exchanges of the 21st century by mentioning, "I am surprised that in the year 2000 - half a century after the first initiatives for a common Europe, and in the age of the Internet, that cross-border transactions are still so complex and horrendously expensive. In a fully integrated world, I would never have to answer the anachronistic question: "When do you contemplate listing your shares on the New York Stock Exchange?"
