Business View Caribbean | May 2016

56 May 2016 - Business View Caribbean Business View Caribbean - May 2016 57 cial Services Commission, which is comparable to the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission (SEC). Also, the Jamaica Stock Exchange is licensed by the Financial Services Commission and regulated by it, as well. Is there a typical type or size of company that gets listed? In the states, there are different exchanges – one just for technological companies, for example. I imagine, since the Jamaica Exchange is much small- er by comparison, that any company that meets your criteria can join. Correct. So, for example, where you have the NASDAQ that is heavily technological, ours is not. So, we have banking, we have insurance, we have manufacturing – any company, so long as it meets our requirements can be listed on the Exchange. Are most of the 60 plus companies that you men- tioned, Jamaican? Yes. And you find that more and more that they are predominantly Jamaican. We also have, for example, the Trinidad Cement Company, which by virtue of its name, you realize is from Trinidad and Tobago. It is cross-listed on our Exchange. By cross-listing, I mean that it is listed on the Trinidad and Tobago Stock Ex- change and it’s also listed on ours. If a company wanted to trade its stock, are there any alternatives available? We are the only exchange that trades publicly-listed companies. A company that is listed on our Exchange trades on our Exchange, so we are the only game in town. You said that you became a demutualized exchange in 2008. Has anything else occurred recently, or planned for the near-term future, that will further im- pact the way you operate – expansions, upgrades, new initiatives? When we talk about the Exchange, we’re talking about the Exchange Group, because we have subsidiaries. The Jamaica Stock Exchange has a subsidiary called the Jamaica Central Securities Depository (JCSD) and it has a subsidiary called the Trustee Services Lim- ited. I say that in order to answer that question. The Stock Exchange, in and of itself, supports the market in terms of the listing of companies, of bonds, and different markets. We, in turn, are supported by the JCSD, which is the settlement arm of the company. We see ourselves as providing full service, so, in terms of building out our resources, we added the Trustee Ser- vices and other services, like registrar services. And that is how we are developing the Exchange, or the Exchange Group, in order to provide full services in re- spect to anything related to securities. These are on- going improvements and expansions to ensure the vi- ability and sustainability of the Exchange. So, we don’t only depend on revenue in relation to trading on the market, but on other things, as well. Anything else new or planned for the near-term? You have to be relevant. So, we just launched our on- line trading platform and that is just to keep up with technology and to offer to our investors another way in which they can connect and trade through the Stock Exchange. That is a strategic direction so that persons in the Diaspora, and persons all over the world, can purchase or transact easily and more conveniently. The traditional picture of a stock exchange floor is a noisy, raucous place where people are shouting orders and screaming over one another. But these days, as you suggest, a lot of trading is being done online. Do you have that traditional trading floor any- more? PRACTICE AREAS: Corporate & Commercial I Employment I Intellectual Property I Estates I Litigation I Real Estate I Pensions I Tax Advice 72 Harbour Street, Kingston, Jamaica 876 922-6310 I lalevy@lival.co I www.lival.co Jamaica Stock Exchange 2015 Top Performer - Bloomberg Livingston, Alexander and Levy congratulates the Jamaica Stock Exchange on its sterling achievements in the development and growth of the capital markets.