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NCB Capital Markets exec renews call for C'bean stock exchange

Published:Wednesday | January 22, 2020 | 12:00 AM

Stanley Thompson, the manager for origination and structuring at NCB Capital Markets has renewed calls for a Caribbean stock exchange.

Thompson, who reckons private and public sectors across the region could create the stock trading platform by 2035, made the call on day two of the three-day Jamaica Stock Exchange 15th Regional Investments and Capital Markets Conference in New Kingston.

"People across the region want access wherever the opportunities are, so hopefully, we will find a way to fully integrate with people right across the Caribbean," Thompson said.

Talks of a single Caribbean Stock Exchange - the CXN - gained momentum in 1989 when CARICOM Heads of Government reportedly put forward the idea of developing a regional capital market as a component of the then proposed CARICOM Single Market and Economy.

On March 18, 2016, the stock exchanges in Jamaica, Barbados and Trinidad & Tobago signed off on a contract with the South Africa-based Securities Trading Technology (SST) to provide the three exchanges with a new platform that could facilitate integration.

STT, founded in 1985, offers technology platforms to numerous exchanges on the African continent and beyond.

The company specialises in the development of exchange solutions, to back-office management systems and front-end trading tools.

Today, cross-listing in the Caribbean is carried out by companies such as the NCB Financial Group, JMMB Group Limited, GraceKennedy and Sagicor Financial Corporation.

- Karena Bennett

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