Capital market activity in Europe is well managed and regulated and has been steadily evolving to a level where the markets under its ambit can integrate into a single powerful market from Warsaw to Madrid and from Athens to Oslo.
The FESE (Federation of European Securities Exchanges) is the umbrella body that represents the European regulated markets and other market segments that comprise the markets for securities, financial derivatives and energy and commodity derivatives.
Membership of the FESE is of 3 types:
Full membership - It is granted to any recognized, regulated and supervised stock exchange or association of such exchanges within the European Union or the European Economic Area and Switzerland.
It comprises the following stock exchanges:
Athens Stock Exchange
Spanish Stock Exchanges
Italian Stock Exchanges
Bratislava Stock Exchange
Bucharest Stock Exchange
Budapest Stock Exchange
Cyprus Stock Exchange
German Stock Exchange
Euronext
Euronext Amsterdam
Euronext Brussels
Euronext Lisbon
Euronext Paris
Euronext Liffe
ICE Futures
Irish Stock Exchange
Ljubljana Stock Exchange
London Metal Exchange
London Stock Exchange
Luxembourg Stock Exchange
Malta Stock Exchange
OMX
Stockholm Stock Exchange
Helsinki Stock Exchange
Copenhagen Stock Exchange
Riga Stock Exchange
Tallinn Stock Exchange
Vilnius Stock Exchange
Iceland Stock Exchange
Oslo Stock Exchange
Prague Stock Exchange
SWX Swiss Exchange
Virt X
Warsaw Stock Exchange
Weiner Stock Exchange
Associate membership - It is granted to any recognized, regulated and supervised stock exchange or association of such exchanges of countries that are officially in negotiation with the EU regarding full membership of the union.
Corresponding membership - It is granted to any recognized, regulated and supervised stock exchange or association of such exchanges that are either not ready to apply for Associate membership or are from countries not yet in formal negotiations to join the EU.
They comprise the following stock exchanges:
Belgrade Stock Exchange
Bulgarian Stock Exchange
Macedonian Stock Exchange
Varazdin Stock Exchange
The Zagreb Stock Exchange
The FESE represents around 40 stock exchanges spread across the domain of its members from 24 countries that operate on a global scale. The FESE cooperates and coordinates with the following counterparts in the EU:
- European Commission
- European Parliament
- EcoFin Council
- European Securities Committee
- Committee of European Securities Regulators
- European Association of Central Counterparty Clearing Houses
The dream of a common European stock exchange to offer fully integrated services is still some way off but it is true that of all aspects of the European Union the financial services sector has integrated faster than any other. The problems faced in this direction arise mainly from the firm positions of countries with a strong fiscal discipline like Germany and those with fiscal conditions that are not as firm, such as Italy. But the gap in fiscal discipline is gradually reducing and at the end the total integration of the capital markets in EU will take place in due course.