On the other hand, this is the first annual general meeting in the first of those years ever to start with a number two before the zeroes. That gave rise for me to look into the archives to find out what was actually planned and said 10 years ago. Back then, as today, decisions for the future were on the docket.
A decade ago, we agreed upon the merger of the former Association of Swiss Stock Exchanges and the Association Tripartite Bourses. The consolidation of domestic securities exchanges had begun. We submitted to the Finance Department in Bern our own draft of a federal securities exchange act. Its basic elements are still to be found in the currently valid law. The lifting of the cantonal boundaries for exchanges had begun.
Back then, we also resolved that - with SOFFEX - the networking was to be conceived in manner that for all practical purposes only one exchange should come into being.
Notable on the international level was the 1990 entry of our predecessor association into the European Securities Exchange Association. The attempt was made to network into European exchanges with systems called things like "PIPE" and "Euroquote". Nothing ever came of it, and probably no one even remembers those names.
So you see, ladies and gentlemen, there are differences and there are constants. However back then, as today, the same applies: not everyone who falls out of the framework was previously in the picture. Whoever at the time ardently swore by the concept of co-operative ventures among exchanges had to acknowledge his having misread the facts. We - and others - acknowledged in the ensuing years the widest number of attempts to found a pan-European securities exchange. To date, though, not one of them has met with continuing success.
We, too, are involved in a wide variety of activities. Namely, we carry out our activities pursuant to statutes with the goal of serving the Swiss financial and securities exchange marketplace. Whether - and what kind of - a joining of forces is best for SWX participants in the future is impossible to say at this point. We are certain that, also for SWX, going it alone appears not to be the ideal remedy.
The planned creation of Euronext and the announced merger of the London Exchange and Deutsche Börse AG could represent steps in a consolidation of the European exchange landscape. You could also read last week in a weekly newspaper that we too are on a road show. Our system has the best price/performance relationship. We therefore do not wish to engender alliances at the cost of efficiency. But when the appropriate time comes, we shall act rapidly.
In 1999, we agreed to the possibility of cross-membership with the Paris Exchange. This project on one hand demonstrated that we can achieve results within a reasonable period of time, and on the other it gave us the opportunity to gain first-hand experience in where the boundaries of sensible technological co-operation lie and where the effort involved, in relationship to the potential volume gains, becomes too expensive.
Together with our Eurex partner, Deutsche Börse AG, we are planning to expand the Eurex palette with interest-rate and repo products. And it is self-evident that we are also bringing our system into discussions with many other institutions. I'm going on the assumption that before the year is out we will be able to determine the further line of attack. 10 years ago, it was resolved that a staged approach be taken. That also applies to today.
