Chile, Peru, Colombia to Start Trialing Combined Stock Trading Arrangement

by Eduardo Thomson and Alex Emery for Bloomberg,  November 9th, 2010.

The main securities exchanges in Chile, Colombia and Peru plan to begin trialing cross-border stock trading in an arrangement that may lead to the creation of Latin America’s second-largest bourse by market value. The three exchanges, which signed a definitive agreement in Lima today, will begin testing with brokerages on Nov. 22 in a system known as MILA, they said in an e-mailed statement.

In a second phase the three countries may establish a common exchange in a bid to increase trading volume and lure more foreign investors. The combined market value of the three bourses is $657 billion compared with Mexico’s $464 billion and Brazil’s $1.5 trillion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. There is “no horizon” yet for direct trading on each exchange, Colombian Securities Exchange President Juan Pablo Cordoba said.

“This is just stage one,” said Rupert Stebbings, head of the Colombian unit of Chilean brokerage Celfin Capital SA. “Full integration is likely to take a couple of years more owing to some significant differences in the tax regimes of each country as well as oversight and of course deciding where the home of the exchange will be.”

 

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