Chile, Colombia and Peru plan to integrate their stock exchanges by the end of the year in a bid to encourage greater foreign investor participation.
"We want to enhance liquidity. By integrating these three markets and putting investors and issuers together, we believe that we will collectively be able to provide better liquidity and a better platform for all," says Juan Cordoba, president of the Colombian Stock Exchange.
"In time this will provide some sort of incentive for intra-regional trading and, even more importantly, this bigger, more liquid market will hopefully attract more investors from outside the region. The chance to receive more external investors is one of the main incentives driving us to seek this integration."
Even though Peru and Colombia started talks about integrating their exchanges two years ago, the idea was officially launched, with Chile included, in September 2009. A memorandum between the three exchanges was signed in January.
| "We believe that we will collectively be able to provide better liquidity and a better platform for all" Juan Cordoba, Colombian Stock Exchange |
A senior banker in New York says: "Each of the markets – Peru, Colombia and Chile – have different focuses.