Beleaguered BISX Seeks Foreign Investment

by Carla Johnson, Investors Offshore.com

28 November 2001

Delegates from the Bahamas International Securities Exchange (BISX) are set to embark on official visits to the US and Europe in a bid to promote the exchange and attract foreign investors to help rescue the it from near collapse. Mr Ian Fair, chairman of the BISX, told the Bahamas Journal that international activity was vital for the future of the exchange. 'We need to find a major institution that can use the exchange,' he said.

Last month Mr Fair publicly called upon the government to bring the exchange back from the brink of collapse by keeping its pledge to channel its business through the exchange. So far the exchange has been funded privately with no help from the government which has not yet issued an official response to Mr Fair's pleas.

Chief Executive Gerry Ritchie added: 'Thirty Bahamian funds are listed in Dublin. We are trying to get these to list here, or to have a secondary listing here, but there have been none yet.'

The Bahamas Journal reports that the BISX aims to provide for primary and secondary listing of Bahamian regulated and overseas regulated mutual funds, sponsored by specialist members of the Exchange. BISX officials intend to 'market the advantages of listing funds on BISX to the investment community internationally, and continue to work with Bahamas Financial Services Board to place the exchange in the vanguard of the ever-growing and diverse range of financial services available to international investors in The Bahamas.'

Recommended