TASE announces today that the first stage of the market-making reform has been completed, with the selection of 7 companies as market-making candidates. The existing securities’ market makers will be joined by nostro market participants and ETF market makers.
The candidates that passed TASE’s screening process will compete among themselves for every security in which they are interested to act as a market maker, thereby maximizing the parameters (minimum quantity and maximum spread) set for each security. TASE will rank each market maker based on its proposed parameters for the security, whereby the top-ranking market maker will be awarded market making in the security and the market-making parameters will be those of the winning market maker.
The market-making candidates are: Orcom Strategies, IBI Israel Brokerage and Investments, Bull-Dog Tech, Bina Investments, Meitav Trade, Meitav Market Making, and Migdal Market Making.
Bringing in more entities to act as market makers will increase the competition in this field and was facilitated by an amendment to the TASE Rules from 2022, which determined that a market maker (in shares and bonds) is no longer required to be a TASE member or a subsidiary of a TASE member.
TASE has advanced two important moves in relation to lending, which would provide a comparative advantage to the market makers in this program: a joint move of the Israel Securities Authority and TASE instituted more lenient short-sale rules for the market makers, to better facilitate lending.
In addition, TASE has reached understandings with 3 leading banks - Leumi, Hapoalim and FIBI, that will allow, for the first time in the history of TASE, lending to the selected market makers at attactive terms. This will improve the certainty of lending availability to the market makers and boost the liquidity of the securities.
The TASE Staff is currently furthering the next stage of the program, in which new securities will be signed-up to the new program. There has been a solid demand for the program to date, as close to 200 securities have already secured a spot in the program, and the sign-up rate is expected to further increase in the coming weeks.
Enhacing the liquidity at TASE is part of TASE’s strategic plan of providing top-tier liquidity services to all listed securities.
The program is scheduled to be launched on May 4, 2025.
