Baltic co-operation meeting

06.08.1999 TLN

Joint Press Release of the Baltic Stock Exchanges
August 6, 1999

Representatives of the three Baltic Exchanges held their regular quarterly meeting in Tallinn on Friday to discuss the progress to date and future projects towards the integration of Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian stock markets.

Main topics on the agenda were Baltic Exchanges’ co-operation with international exchange alliances, the principles of the Baltic List to be formed of local blue-chip securities, the publication of joint statistics and the creation of a common web-site.

The chief executives of the Baltic Exchanges noted with satisfaction that work towards integrating the three markets has gained considerable momentum. In early July a real-time data-feed was successfully launched between Tallinn and Riga. Vilnius is expected to join the project later this year.

The chief executives also discussed the Baltic Exchanges’ strategy towards joining international exchange alliances. Carl Johan Högbom, President of the OM Stockholm Exchange and Klaus Thorball of the Copenhagen Stock Exchange presented the co-operation model of the NOREX Alliance and discussions were held on possible co-operation between the Baltic Exchanges and the NOREX Alliance.

It was noted that in all states there exist regulatory barriers to achieving remote membership. The Exchanges feel strongly that current barriers make the application of remote membership a complicated and expensive procedure. The Exchanges propose to the respective authorities to recognize mutually security intermediary licenses of each country.

The Working Group on Listing discussed the quantitative and qualitative criteria for the Baltic List, the creation of the Baltic Index, as well as harmonization of information disclosure and listing rules. Harmonizing statistics methodology in line with relevant recommendation of the Federation of European Stock Exchanges (FESE) and the creation of a common web-site were discussed in the Public Relations Working Group. The IT/Trading Working Group discussed further developing the data feed and implementing it in Vilnius, thereby creating a real-time link between the three markets.

Additional information:

Eva Palu
Head of Investor Relations Dpt
Tallinn Stock Exchange
Tel: +372 64 08 840
e-mail:

Ilze Nagla
Manager of Public Relations Dpt
Riga Stock Exchange
Tel: +371 7 212 431

Diana Sokolova
Public Relations Manager
National Stock Exchange of Lithuania
Tel: +370 2 723 871