London’s role as the world centre for securities exchanges and finance got a further boost last night (29 October, Mexico City) when the World Federation of Exchanges voted to move its headquarters to London from Paris. The move to London will be completed by the end of this year.
The WFE is the trade association for the operators of regulated financial exchanges. The WFE develops and promotes standards in markets, supporting reform in the regulation of Over-The-Counter (OTC) derivatives markets, international cooperation and coordination among regulators. WFE exchanges are home to more than 45,000 listed companies.
Delegates at the WFE General Assembly in Mexico City made the landmark decision yesterday. Andreas Preuss, Chairman of the WFE Board of Directors, said in a press release: “Moving our headquarters to London will place WFE in closer proximity to a wider universe of our members and their customers. This will underpin our strong commitment to maintaining an on-going dialogue with these key constituencies.”
Hüseyin Erkan, CEO of the WFE, added: “Our ultimate goal is to transform WFE into a more outward-looking organization actively engaged with the financial industry. The WFE’s presence in London will place us in close proximity to many of our members’ operations, as well as to the global financial media, and will facilitate our interactions with the major sell-side and buy-side of the markets.”
The 53rd WFE General Assembly and Annual Meeting in Mexico City this week brings together the chairmen and chief executives from more than 50 of the world’s leading exchanges and it is the largest and most widely attended gathering of global exchange leaders.
New WFE Member Exchanges
Membership of the WFE is a key target for exchanges hoping to show they meet global standards. This week the membership rose to 63 regulated exchanges after the WFE General Assembly approved the membership of: Dubai Financial Markets, Hochiminh Stock Exchange, Kazakhstan Stock Exchange, New Zealand Stock Exchange, and Qatar Exchange.
Award for Excellence
WFE is presenting this year’s WFE Award for Excellence to Professor Robert C. Merton, MIT Sloan School of Management, and Professor Myron Scholes, Stanford Graduate School of Business and the late Fischer Black, former Director of the Quantitative Strategies Group at Goldman Sachs, in recognition of their development of the groundbreaking Black-Scholes Model in 1973. Professor Merton will accept the award in person at a ceremony.
2014 WFE Board of Directors
The General Assembly also elected its new Board of Directors for 2014.
• Chairman: Andreas Preuss, Deutsche Börse AG
• Vice Chairman: Thomas Kloet, TMX Group
• Chairman of the Working Committee: Ravi Narain, National Stock Exchange of India
• Americas: Edemir Pinto, BM&FBOVESPA; Phupinder Gill, CME Group; William J. Brodsky, CBOE Holdings; Luiz Tellez, Bolsa Mexicana de Valores
• Asia-Pacific: Chow Chung Kong, Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing; Gui Minjie, Shanghai Stock Exchange; Atsushi Saito, Japan Exchange Group; Kyungsoo Choi, Chairman & CEO, Korea Exchange
• Europe – Middle East – Africa: Tony Weeresinghe, London Stock Exchange Group; Nicky Newton-King, Johannesburg Stock Exchange; Ibrahim M. Turhan, Borsa Istanbul; Urs Rüegsegger, SIX Swiss Exchange.
At large
• Duncan Niederauer, NYSE Euronext
• Meyer S. Frucher, Nasdaq OMX
WFE Annual Meeting 2014
The next WFE Annual Meeting will be hosted by the Korea Exchange in Seoul.
