Borsa Italiana’s market consolidation and development

By focusing on broadening its proposition and on technological innovation, Borsa Italiana geared its actions towards ensuring an increasingly easier access to financing for Italian SMEs, while providing the other players of the national and international economic system with the best opportunities to participate in an increasingly competitive global financial market.

giorno quotazione engIn 2012, a new market known as AIM Italia – Alternative Capital Market – was therefore created following a merger between AIM Italia (an unregulated market intended for smaller-sized companies launched in 2009 in the wake of the success of London’s AIM) and MAC, with the aim of rationalising the listing offer designed for SMEs. Benefiting, among other things, from the new setup as an MTF (Multilateral Trading Facility) — which simplifies listing procedures, makes access to capital more immediate and provides regulatory assurance to operators, resulting in a company requirements-investor protection balance — this market turned out to be the most dynamic of the entire sector in terms of numbers, showing continued growth. In 2019, it listed as many as 132 companies (compared to 18 in 2012, see Table 1), while scoring a record-setting number of 31 new listings (all of which were subject to prior placement).

This segment, which is intended for the trading of foreign shares already traded on other European or OECD regulated markets, underwent reorganisation in 2016, when the MTA International was replaced by the Global Equity Market (GEM), the segment of the new Borsa Italiana Equity MTF market. The new multilateral trading system, which relies on efficient and financially competitive trading and post-trading capabilities, made it possible to increase the number of shares traded, broaden the geographical reach of the offer and drive the participation of new institutional investors, allowing another 30 companies (in addition to the 36 already present in the MTA International) to be listed immediately. In the following two years, the number of companies listed on the GEM increased by almost 50%, rising to 95 (link to the page of the table of listed companies from 2009 to 2018).

gala dinner 2The launch of the new professional bond segment, ExtraMOT PRO, in 2013 also played a role in broadening Borsa Italiana’s offer. This segment was introduced with the aim of enabling listed and non-listed Italian companies to access a market where they could take advantage of the opportunities afforded by the new national regulatory framework outlined in the government bill on development (known as “DDL Sviluppo”). It was created to work side by side with the MOT, which in 2014 celebrated its 20th anniversary and represents a model of excellence at an international level, as it ranks as the first European retail market of fixed-income securities by trades and turnover. In the same year, AGREX was introduced, the first Italian regulated financial market for agricultural commodity derivatives, while in 2017 a new segment dedicated to green and/or social bonds on our bond markets was launched. Finally, ATFund was created in 2018, a market dedicated to open-ended fund trading.

On the technology front, special emphasis is placed on the fact that since 2012 all the financial markets of Borsa Italiana Group have been able to rely on a new trading platform, the Millennium Exchange, which stands out both for its high performance levels and the new types of orders and functions that broaden the trading and investment horizon for all kinds of investors. At the same time, the servers were moved from London to Milan to increase trading efficiency between the stock market and derivative market.

guida 2Changes were made also from a regulatory perspective, with the reference framework being updated and expanded mainly as a result of (i) the new edition of the Corporate Governance Code for Listed Companies — which was simplified, expanded and issued in the form of a handbook in 2011 and is amended from time to time by a committee composed of all market participant groups — and (ii) the first ESG Guidance published in 2017 in conjunction with the LSE Group to respond to the growing need for investors to include listed companies’ sustainability assessments in their investment decisions.


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