Today, in Panama, the stock exchanges of Costa Rica (BNV), El Salvador (BVES) and Panama (BVP) started working with the aim of advancing an integration plan. During today and tomorrow, the exchanges’ managers will discuss the establishing of a common trading platform, the single order book, remote membership and the necessary legal and regulatory infrastructure.
"We are giving all our support and pressing the accelerator on this project because it is a plan that concerns us all in Central America," said Rolando Duarte, president of the BVES. In an effort to incorporate in the process the stock market participants from the region, Duarte said that each country will hold meetings with their house brokers, to push their players closer to the remote model.
The countries are working according to schedule. It only remains to agree on and purchase the trading system. To find the best option at a global level it will be put out to tender. The details of the tender are not defined yet but it will be given to the company that can provide a platform that allows real-time connection with the three stock exchanges. The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), that sponsored the first part of the process, will be asked again to support the purchase.
.Duarte said that the set up of AMERCA is progressing according to schedule, and the first results of the integration will be seen in June 2009. This week's meeting is also expected to discuss the expansion of the Panama Canal, with the idea that local markets are taken into account in the financing plan for the project.
