Regulator Calls For Single Caribbean Securities Exchange

by Amanda Banks, Tax-News.com, London

18 October 2005

Osborne Nurse, Chairman of the Trinidad and Tobago Securities and Exchange Commission, has called for increased cooperation among the region's securities regulators or the creation of a single regional exchange, to reduce barriers to entry for companies seeking to list in the Caribbean.

Mr. Nurse, who addressed the second annual Caribbean Securities Regulators Conference last week, urged regulators to collaborate more closely in order to help simplify the requirements for business activity and to ensure that "all investors, wherever resident, benefit from the same level of knowledge or information about market actors, and about issuers."

Mr Nurse cited the securities market in Trinidad and Tobago as an example, where cross-listed entities "are a bit unsure about the requirements they have to satisfy on each of their listed markets."

By adopting a single regional approach to regulation in the Caribbean, Mr Nurse argued that the requirements for firms seeking to enter the market would be much simplified. However, while the drawing up of unified regulatory standards may be a relatively simple task, Mr Nurse warned that the process would come at a cost, and he noted that "all market participants seek to minimise these costs wherever possible by playing in the areas of difference".

There are four stock exchanges in the Caribbean on which fewer than 120 equity securities of Caribbean companies are listed. Several firms are listed on more than one of the markets.

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