Sarajevo Stock Exchange

The Sarajevo Stock Exchange or SASE (Bosnian: Sarajevska Berza) is a stock exchange which operates in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

History and structure

The Sarajevo Stock Exchange was founded in September 2001 and commenced trading on April 12, 2002, as a central marketplace for trading in securities in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which together with the Republika Srpska, makes up the post-war Bosnia-Herzegovina. The SASE was founded as a joint-stock company. It had eight founding members. According to the Securities Law, SASE members can only be legal entities - brokerage houses whose sole activity is trading in securities, with headquarters in Bosnia and Hercegovina. The founding capital of the exchange was BAM 200.000 (1 BAM = 0.51 EUR).

All SASE members must be licensed for securities trading by the Securities Commission of the Federation of Bosnia and Hercegovina. Only those brokers authorized by the SASE members, who have passed a brokers' exam are allowed to trade. The Securities Commission defines the manner and conditions for taking the exam and for revoking the licence. A broker is required to hold a valid licence issued by the Agency. The SASE currently has 16 members, whose headquarters are spread around Bosnia and Herzegovina, the majority being in the capital, Sarajevo. The shareholder assembly elects a five-member supervisory board for a four-year term. The supervisory board appoints the Manager of the Exchange who is in charge of the strategic planning and daily operations.

The members of the management board of the Sarajevo Stock Exchange and Wiener Börse signed a memorandum of understanding on March 21, 2006. This made Bosnia – after Romania, Croatia and Belgrade – the fourth Southeastern European stock exchange to enter into a cooperation agreement with the Budapest Stock Exchange and the Vienna Stock Exchange. The memorandum of understanding lays the foundation for closer collaboration between the exchanges of Sarajevo and Vienna. The first joint project is expected be an index.

Performance

The performance of the Sarajevo Stock Exchange has exploded in the past few years. Since 2002, market capitalization has risen by around twenty times and, at the end of 2005, it was EUR 3.3bn. The average daily trading volumes have also soared in the past few years and hit EUR 1.5mn by 2005. The leading index of the Sarajevo Stock Exchange, the BIFX, rose from 1,264.20 at the end of 2002 to 4,045.57 points at the end of 2005.[1]

See also

References
  1. Wiener Börse and Sarajevo Stock Exchange Sign Cooperation Agreement, 21 March 2006
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