Borsa İstanbul, with historical roots going back to 1873, is a diversified regional exchange in Turkey, providing trading, settlement, custody and registry services for equities, derivatives, fixed income & repo, precious metals and Islamic finance markets.
The Company operates under a single umbrella, following its demutualization and incorporation in 2012. Successful completion of horizontal integration (via the acquisition of the derivatives and gold exchanges) and vertical integration (via control of the two domestic post trade firms) took place shortly thereafter.
Through its markets, Borsa İstanbul offers corporates, investors and traders in the region a broad range of financial products suited to their needs, and efficient access to extensive capital markets. Post trade and depository services are offered by its majority-owned subsidiaries Takasbank (Istanbul Settlement and Custody Bank) and MKK (The Central Securities Depository). Borsa İstanbul calculates 360 indices that measure and benchmark equity and fixed income markets in Turkey.
FINANCIAL HUB IN THE REGION
Istanbul Financial Center (IFC) project feeds directly into Borsa İstanbul’s strategic vision. All efforts are coordinated to strengthen this target. By positioning itself as the hub for capital market activities in Central Asia, South-eastern Europe and North Africa (Eurasia) region, Borsa İstanbul contributes substantially to the IFC project. A number of transformational reforms involving Turkish capital markets and Borsa İstanbul have been initiated and implemented over the last three years to this end.
Having stepped up its efforts to become a financial hub in its region, Borsa İstanbul undertook gigantic steps towards becoming internationally more competitive.
A series of strategic partnerships with globally recognized brands in its sector such as Nasdaq, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), and London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) prepared Borsa İstanbul well for its upcoming Initial Public Offering (IPO).
FOCUS ON 25 COUNTRIES
Borsa İstanbul signed a far reaching strategic agreement with Nasdaq in late 2013, which includes the delivery of market-leading technologies and advisory services to Borsa İstanbul, and acquisition of five percent Borsa İstanbul equity stake by NASDAQ. The partnership positions Borsa İstanbul as a leading, integrated, multi-asset class exchange that operates the best-of-breed platform serving issuers, investors and traders globally. The partnership covers integration and operation of NASDAQ’s suite of world-class systems for trading, clearing, market surveillance and risk management, covering all asset classes. The first phase of the “transformation with technology program”, named BISTECH, went live on November 2015 with the launch of the Equity Market trading and settlement system together with surveillance, risk management and other supporting systems. As a result, Borsa İstanbul not only renewed its legacy technology infrastructure with the best in the world but also became the owner of the resale rights. Going forward, Borsa İstanbul will focus on customizing, providing and supporting BISTECH technology for 25 countries in the region.
Borsa İstanbul and EBRD agreed towards the end of 2015 to the acquisition by the EBRD of a 10 per cent Borsa İstanbul equity stake.
The long-term investment demonstrates the EBRD’s confidence in the potential of Borsa İstanbul and the Turkish economy as a whole. It also underscores EBRD’s support for Turkey’s comprehensive capital market reform program and the plan to develop Istanbul into a financial center for the region spanning Eurasia.
PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENTS
Borsa İstanbul entered into two agreements with the London Metal Exchange (LME) under which it acquired the LME’s stake in the clearing house LCH. Clearnet; and Borsa İstanbul, the LME and LME’s parent company Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEx) partner on dissemination of market data.
Partnership agreement signed with London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) in early 2015 for the offering of futures and options on BIST 30 Index and on leading Turkish stocks in London Stock Exchange Derivatives Market (LSEDM). Consequently, futures and options on the BIST 30 Index started being traded on LSEDM. Central counterparty services provided by LCH.Clearnet. The partnership enables Borsa İstanbul to enjoy full benefits of FTSE’s unique technical expertise and top global positioning, and represents a significant enhancement in accessibility for international investors to Turkish markets.
ENTREPRENEURS AND INVESTORS MEETING AT THIS PRIVATE MARKET
“Borsa İstanbul Private Market” was established as an umbrella platform that brings together entrepreneurs and investors under Borsa İstanbul. This new platform is expected to fill an important gap in the region regarding SME financing. It allows small and medium companies to have access to finances without being listed. Private market offers liquidity for company partners intending to sell their shares and provides investors the chance to find buyers to liquidate their investments when needed. The first partnership agreement between entrepreneurs and investors through Borsa İstanbul Private Market is signed in 2015.
SIX FOREIGN STOCK EXCHANGES COMING TO ISTANBUL
The decisions taken at Istanbul Stock Exchange will enable trading of stocks in the primary markets of 6 foreign stock exchanges at Istanbul Stock Exchange as well, within the framework of the quick quotation practice. The quick quotation practice will be regulated by the Quotation Directive, and was introduced to increase the number of foreign firms traded at Istanbul Stock Exchange.
In this vein, in case trading applications are filed for the firms the stocks of which are traded at the primary markets of Bursa Malaysia, Qatar Stock Exchange, Nasdaq Dubai, GPW Warsaw Stock Exchange, Athens Stock Exchange, and Nasdaq OMX Nordic will be quoted and traded at Istanbul Trading Exchange, provided that the publicly traded portion of the firms are worth TRY 100 million or more.
EUROPEAN INVESTORS JUST WON'T QUIT
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) announced that last year it invested approximately EUR 1.9 billion in Turkey.
The statement by London-based EBRD noted that among all investments worth
EUR 9.4 billion it made in 2015 in all the countries of its operations, Turkey ranked
first with a share of 20 percent.
EBRD's statement underlined the fact that Turkey had been reinforcing its pivotal position, and reminded that in 2014, the Bank also invested in Turkey, at a total figure of EUR 1.4 billion.
EBRD Director for Turkey, Jean-Patrick Marquet stated that "EBRD had a significant performance in Turkey by responding to the finance needs growing outside major centers in particular, despite the challenging climate."