The Belgrade Stock Exchange (BELEX) has become an active member of the regional SEE Link network, SEE Link announced on December 5.

SEE Link is a project started by the Bulgarian, Macedonian and Croatian stock exchanges with the objective of creating a regional infrastructure for the trading of securities listed on the three markets. The idea behind this cross border initiative is to integrate regional equities markets without a merger or corporate integration, using technology that will enable participating stock exchanges to remain independent while still giving investors easier and more efficient access to those markets through a local broker.

This is the first stock exchange that has actively joined SEE Link after the three founding stock exchanges, the SEE Link December 5 press release reads.

With BELEX's accession, the SEE Link order-routing system now supports trading for a total of four markets, with a combined equity market capitalisation of more than $33bn and almost 500 stocks eligible for trading. A total of 27 investment companies are licensed to trade via SEE Link. In addition, seven members of the Belgrade Stock Exchange are currently in the process of obtaining licenses for trading via SEE Link.

Besides BELEX, four more stock exchanges are preparing to connect to SEE Link, the Athens, Banja Luka, Ljubljana and Montenegro stock exchanges, with several other regional stock exchanges expressing an interest in joining, SEE Link said.

The Bulgarian, Croatian and Macedonian bourses set up SEE Link as a joint company in May 2014, located in Skopje. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) supported the initial phase of the SEE Link project with a €540,000 grant to introduce an electronic system for order-routing in July 2014. Funding for the project was provided by EBRD donors through the EBRD Shareholder Special Fund. In parallel, participating stock exchanges extended €80,000 to SEE Link.

The SEE Link order routing system became fully operational at the end of the March this year. The two SEE Link indices ‒ SEE LinX and SEE LinX EWI ‒ composed of the 10 most actively traded regional companies listed on three participating exchanges were launched at the beginning of April. With the accession of a new market, a revision of the indices is planned in the forthcoming period in order to provide a more representative overview of the market.