1.
Ticker symbol
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A ticker symbol or stock symbol is an abbreviation used to uniquely identify publicly traded shares of a particular stock on a particular stock market. A stock symbol may consist of letters, numbers or a combination of both, ticker symbol refers to the symbols that were printed on the ticker tape of a ticker tape machine. Stock symbols are unique identifiers assigned to each security traded on a particular market, for example, AAPL is for Apple Inc. OODH is for Orion DHC, Inc. and HD is for Home Depot, a stock symbol can consist of letters, numbers, or a combination of both, and is a way to uniquely identify that stock. The symbols were kept as short as possible to reduce the number of characters that had to be printed on the ticker tape, the allocation of symbols and formatting convention is specific to each stock exchange. In the US, for example, stock tickers are typically between 1 and 4 letters and represent the name where possible. In Europe, most exchanges use three-letter codes, for example Dutch consumer goods company Unilever traded on the Amsterdam Euronext exchange has the symbol UNA, while in Asia, numbers are often used as stock tickers to avoid issues for international investors when using non-Latin scripts. For example, the bank HSBCs stock traded on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange has the ticker symbol 0005, symbols sometimes change to reflect mergers. Prior to the 1999 merger with Mobil Oil, Exxon used a spelling of the company XON as its ticker symbol. The symbol of the firm after the merger was XOM, symbols are sometimes reused, in the US the single-letter symbols are particularly sought after as vanity symbols. For example, since Mar 2008 Visa Inc. has used the symbol V that had previously used by Vivendi which had delisted. To fully qualify a stock, both the ticker and the exchange or country of listing needs to be known, on many systems both must be specified to uniquely identify the security. This is often done by appending the location or exchange code to the ticker, although stock tickers identify a security, they are exchange dependent, generally limited to stocks and can change. These limitations have led to the development of other codes in financial markets to identify securities for settlement purposes, the most prevalent of these is the International Securities Identifying Number. An ISIN uniquely identifies a security and its structure is defined in ISO6166, Securities for which ISINs are issued include bonds, commercial paper, stocks, and warrants. The ISIN identifies the security, not the exchange on which it trades, for instance, Daimler AG stock trades on twenty-two different stock exchanges worldwide, and is priced in five different currencies, it has the same ISIN on each, though not the same ticker symbol. ISIN cannot specify a particular trade in this case, and another identifier, following the introduction of the Sequence trading platform in 1996, EPICs were renamed Tradable Instrument Display Mnemonics, but they are still widely referred to as EPICs. Stocks can also be identified using their SEDOL number or their ISIN, in the United States, modern letter-only ticker symbols were developed by Standard & Poors to bring a national standard to investing
2.
Naamloze vennootschap
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Naamloze vennootschap is a legal structure of a company conformable law in in the Netherlands, Belgium, Indonesia, and Suriname. The company is owned by shareholders, and the shares are not registered to certain owners. The phrase literally means nameless partnership or anonymous venture and comes from the fact that the partners are not directly known and this is in contrast to the term for a private limited company, which is called besloten vennootschap. SE – additional legal structure of a company available in the European Union S. p. A Types of companies
3.
Amsterdam
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Amsterdam is the capital and most populous municipality of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Its status as the capital is mandated by the Constitution of the Netherlands, although it is not the seat of the government, which is The Hague. Amsterdam has a population of 851,373 within the city proper,1,351,587 in the urban area, the city is located in the province of North Holland in the west of the country. The metropolitan area comprises much of the part of the Randstad, one of the larger conurbations in Europe. Amsterdams name derives from Amstelredamme, indicative of the citys origin around a dam in the river Amstel, during that time, the city was the leading centre for finance and diamonds. In the 19th and 20th centuries the city expanded, and many new neighborhoods and suburbs were planned, the 17th-century canals of Amsterdam and the 19–20th century Defence Line of Amsterdam are on the UNESCO World Heritage List. As the commercial capital of the Netherlands and one of the top financial centres in Europe, Amsterdam is considered a world city by the Globalization. The city is also the capital of the Netherlands. Many large Dutch institutions have their headquarters there, and seven of the worlds 500 largest companies, including Philips and ING, are based in the city. In 2012, Amsterdam was ranked the second best city to live in by the Economist Intelligence Unit and 12th globally on quality of living for environment, the city was ranked 3rd in innovation by Australian innovation agency 2thinknow in their Innovation Cities Index 2009. The Amsterdam seaport to this day remains the second in the country, famous Amsterdam residents include the diarist Anne Frank, artists Rembrandt van Rijn and Vincent van Gogh, and philosopher Baruch Spinoza. The Amsterdam Stock Exchange, the oldest stock exchange in the world, is located in the city center. After the floods of 1170 and 1173, locals near the river Amstel built a bridge over the river, the earliest recorded use of that name is in a document dated October 27,1275, which exempted inhabitants of the village from paying bridge tolls to Count Floris V. This allowed the inhabitants of the village of Aemstelredamme to travel freely through the County of Holland, paying no tolls at bridges, locks, the certificate describes the inhabitants as homines manentes apud Amestelledamme. By 1327, the name had developed into Aemsterdam, Amsterdam is much younger than Dutch cities such as Nijmegen, Rotterdam, and Utrecht. In October 2008, historical geographer Chris de Bont suggested that the land around Amsterdam was being reclaimed as early as the late 10th century. This does not necessarily mean there was already a settlement then, since reclamation of land may not have been for farming—it may have been for peat. Amsterdam was granted city rights in either 1300 or 1306, from the 14th century on, Amsterdam flourished, largely from trade with the Hanseatic League
4.
Euronext Paris
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It operates the MATIF futures exchange, which trades futures and options on interest rate products and commodities, and MONEP, equity and index futures and options. All products are traded electronically on the NSC system adopted by all of the Euronext members, trading hours are 9 am to 5,30 pm CET, Monday to Friday. The French equities market is divided into three sections, the Premier Marché, formerly called the Official List, includes large French and foreign companies, and most Bond issues. The Second Marché, lists medium-sized companies, while nouveau marché lists fast-growing start up companies seeking capital to finance expansion, linked to Euro. nm, the European equity growth market. A fourth market, Marché Libre, is nonregulated, administered by Euronext Paris for transactions in securities not listed on the three markets. Euronext Paris calculates a family of indices, the CAC40 is the exchanges benchmark, desseminated in real time. Its components are included in the broader SBF120 Index, a benchmark for investment funds, the SBF250 index, a benchmark for the long-term performance of equity portfolios, includes all of the SBF120, it is structured by sector. Both indices are benchmarks for funds, the Nouveau Marché Index represents stocks in the growth market. The SBF-FCI index is based on a selection of bonds that represent at least 70% of the total capitalization of this market. For derivatives, MONEP trades short-term and long-term stock options and futures, for the fiscal year ending December 2004, Euronext Paris recorded sales of US $522 million, a −12. 9% decrease in sales from 2003. Euronext Paris has a US $2.9 trillion total market capitalization of listed companies, List of French companies CAC40 CAC Next 20 French Society of Financial Analysts Euronext Paris website MONEP website
5.
Euronext Amsterdam
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The Amsterdam Stock Exchange is the former name for the stock exchange based in Amsterdam. It merged on 22 September 2000 with the Brussels Stock Exchange and the Paris Stock Exchange to form Euronext, the Amsterdam Stock Exchange was established in 1602 by the Dutch East India Company for dealings in its printed stocks and bonds. It was subsequently renamed the Amsterdam Bourse and was the first to begin trading in securities. Although it is considered to be the first stock market, Fernand Braudel argues that this is not precisely true, It is not quite accurate to call the first stock market. The statutes of Verona in 1318 confirm the existence of the settlement or forward market, in 1428, the jurist Bartolomeo de Bosco protested against the sale of forward loca in Genoa. All evidence points to the Mediterranean as the cradle of the stock market, but what was new in Amsterdam was the volume, the fluidity of the market and publicity it received, and the speculative freedom of transactions. That said, it remains the first incarnation of what we could today recognize as a stock market, the European Option Exchange was founded in 1978 in Amsterdam as a futures and options exchange. In 1983 it started a market index, called the EOE index. It should be noted that forward contracts, options, and other sophisticated instruments were traded on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange well before this, in 1997 the Amsterdam Stock Exchange and the EOE merged, and its blue chip index was renamed AEX, for Amsterdam EXchange. It is now managed by Euronext Amsterdam, on 3 October 2011, Princess Máxima opened the new trading floor of the Amsterdam Stock Exchange. The former Stock Exchange building was the Beurs van Berlage, the Amsterdam stock exchange is considered the oldest “modern” securities market in the world. It was shortly after the establishment of the Dutch East India Company in 1602 when equities began trading on a basis as a secondary market to trade its shares. Prior to that, the market existed primarily for the exchange of commodities, in that year, the States General of the Netherlands granted the VOC a 21-year charter over all Dutch trade in Asia and quasi-governmental powers. The monopolistic terms of the charter granted the VOC complete authority over trade defenses, war armaments. The first multi-national corporation with significant resource interests was thereby established, in addition, the high level of risk associated with trade in Asia gave the VOC its private ownership structure. In the Amsterdam East India House alone,1,143 investors subscribed for over ƒ3,679,915 or €100 million in today’s dollars, the subscription terms of each stock purchase offered shareholders the option to transfer their shares to a third party. Quickly a secondary market arose in the East India House for resale of this stock through the official bookkeeper. After an agreement had been reached between the two parties, the shares were transferred from seller to buyer in the “capital book. ”The official account, held by the East India House, encouraged investors to trade
6.
Euronext Brussels
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The Brussels Stock Exchange, abbreviated to BSE, was founded in Brussels, Belgium, by decree of Napoleon in 1801. The most well known index on the Brussels Stock Exchange is the BEL20 and it now belongs to the NYSE Euronext group, the first global stock exchange. The building that houses the Brussels Stock Exchange does not have a distinct name and it is located on Boulevard Anspach, and is the namesake of the Place de la Bourse/Beursplein, which is, after the Grand Place, the second most important square in Brussels. As part of the covering of the river Senne for health and aesthetic reasons in the 1860s and 1870s, architect Léon-Pierre Suys, as part of his proposal for covering of the Senne, designed a building to become the centre of the rapidly expanding business sector. It was to be located on the butter market, on the newly created Anspach Boulevard. The building was erected from 1868 to 1873, and mixes elements of the Neo-Renaissance, euro. nm Euronext 100 Euronext Amsterdam Euronext Lisbon Euronext Paris A Euronext pamphlet describing the history of the Brussels Stock Exchange
7.
Euronext Lisbon
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Euronext Lisbon is a stock exchange in Lisbon, Portugal. It is part of Euronext pan-European exchange, Euronext Lisbon trades equities, public and private bonds, participation bonds, warrants, corporate warrants, investment trust units, and exchange traded funds. The BVL General index is the exchanges official index, and includes all listed shares on the official market, Derivatives include long-term interest rate futures, three-month Lisbor futures, stock index futures and options on the PSI-20 Stock index, and Portuguese stock futures. Trading hours are 8 a. m. to 4,30 p. m. Monday through Friday, the predecessor of the Bolsa de Valores de Lisboa was created in 1769 as the Assembleia dos Homens de Negócio in the Praça do Comércio Square, Lisbon downtown. In 1891, the Bolsa de Valores do Porto in Oporto was founded, after the military coup on April 25,1974, both the Lisbon and Porto stock exchanges were closed by the revolutionary National Salvation Junta. The Euronext Lisbon was formed in 2002 when the shares of Bolsa de Valores de Lisboa e Porto were acquired by Euronext N. V. BVLP, the Portuguese exchange, was formed in the 1990s restructuring of the Lisbon Stock Exchange association and the Porto Derivatives Exchange Association. At the end of 2001,65 companies were listed on BVLP-regulated markets, from January to December 2001, a total of 4.7 million futures and options contracts were traded on the BVLP market. In 2007, after the merger of Euronext and NYSE, Euronext Lisbon joined the new NYSE Euronext group, in June 2014 Euronext completed an initial public offering making it again a standalone company. List of European stock exchanges PSI-20 Portuguese Securities Market Commission Euronext Amsterdam Euronext Brussels Euronext Paris Euronext
8.
Euro
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Outside of Europe, a number of overseas territories of EU members also use the euro as their currency. Additionally,210 million people worldwide as of 2013 use currencies pegged to the euro, the euro is the second largest reserve currency as well as the second most traded currency in the world after the United States dollar. The name euro was adopted on 16 December 1995 in Madrid. The euro was introduced to world markets as an accounting currency on 1 January 1999. While the euro dropped subsequently to US$0.8252 within two years, it has traded above the U. S. dollar since the end of 2002, peaking at US$1.6038 on 18 July 2008. In July 2012, the euro fell below US$1.21 for the first time in two years, following concerns raised over Greek debt and Spains troubled banking sector, as of 26 March 2017, the euro–dollar exchange rate stands at ~ US$1.07. The euro is managed and administered by the Frankfurt-based European Central Bank, as an independent central bank, the ECB has sole authority to set monetary policy. The Eurosystem participates in the printing, minting and distribution of notes and coins in all states. The 1992 Maastricht Treaty obliges most EU member states to adopt the euro upon meeting certain monetary and budgetary convergence criteria, all nations that have joined the EU since 1993 have pledged to adopt the euro in due course. Since 5 January 2002, the central banks and the ECB have issued euro banknotes on a joint basis. Euro banknotes do not show which central bank issued them, Eurosystem NCBs are required to accept euro banknotes put into circulation by other Eurosystem members and these banknotes are not repatriated. The ECB issues 8% of the value of banknotes issued by the Eurosystem. In practice, the ECBs banknotes are put into circulation by the NCBs and these liabilities carry interest at the main refinancing rate of the ECB. The euro is divided into 100 cents, in Community legislative acts the plural forms of euro and cent are spelled without the s, notwithstanding normal English usage. Otherwise, normal English plurals are used, with many local variations such as centime in France. All circulating coins have a side showing the denomination or value. Due to the plurality in the European Union, the Latin alphabet version of euro is used. For the denominations except the 1-, 2- and 5-cent coins, beginning in 2007 or 2008 the old map is being replaced by a map of Europe also showing countries outside the Union like Norway
9.
Market capitalization
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Market capitalization is used by the investment community in ranking the size of companies, as opposed to sales or total asset figures. It is also used in ranking the size of stock exchanges. In performing such rankings, the market capitalizations are calculated at some significant date, the total capitalization of stock markets or economic regions may be compared with other economic indicators. In 2014 and 2015, global market capitalization was US$68 trillion and US$67 trillion, respectively. Market cap is given by the formula M C = N × P, where MC is the capitalization, N is the number of shares outstanding. For example, if company has 4 million shares outstanding. If the closing price per share rises to $21, the cap becomes $84 million. If it drops to $19 per share, the cap falls to $76 million. This is in contrast to mercantile pricing where purchase price, average price, traditionally, companies were divided into large-cap, mid-cap, and small-cap. The terms mega-cap and micro-cap have also come into common use. Different numbers are used by different indexes, there is no definition of, or full consensus agreement about. The cutoffs may be defined as rather than in nominal dollars. Market cap reflects only the equity value of a company and it is important to note that a firms choice of capital structure has a significant impact on how the total value of a company is allocated between equity and debt. A more comprehensive measure is enterprise value, which gives effect to outstanding debt, preferred stock, for insurance firms, a value called the embedded value has been used
10.
AEX index
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The AEX index, derived from Amsterdam Exchange index, is a stock market index composed of Dutch companies that trade on Euronext Amsterdam, formerly known as the Amsterdam Stock Exchange. Started in 1983, the index is composed of a maximum of 25 of the most actively traded securities on the exchange and it is one of the main national indices of the stock exchange group Euronext alongside Brussels BEL20, Pariss CAC40 and Lisbons PSI-20. The AEX started from a level of 100 index points on 3 January 1983. The indexs peak to date is 703.18, reached on 5 September 2000 at the height of the dot-com bubble, the index value more than halved over the following three years before recovering in line with most global financial markets. The AEX index enjoyed its second largest one-day loss on September 29,2008, the decade between 1998 and 2008 has been bad for the AEX index, as it has been the worst performing stock index except for the OMX Iceland 15. The preceding years were a lot compared to the rest of the world. As of 2011, the AEX index composition is reviewed four times a year - a full review in March and interim quarterly reviews in June. Any changes made as a result of the reviews take effect on the third Friday of the month, previously reviews were held in March and September only. Prior to 2008, index changes were made annually in March. At the main March review date, the 23 companies listed on Euronext Amsterdams regulated market with the highest share turnover over the year are admitted to the index. Of the companies ranked between 24th and 27th, a further two are selected with preference given to existing constituents of the index, companies which have fewer than 25% of shares considered free float on Euronext Amsterdam are, however, ineligible for inclusion. Unlike some other European benchmark equity indices, if a company has more than one class of shares traded on the exchange, if a company or companies are removed from the index due to delisting, acquisition or another reason, no replacements are made until the next review date. If vacancies are to be filled, the highest-ranking non-AEX companies are selected to join the index, the AEX is a capitalization-weighted index. At each main annual review, the weightings of companies in the index are capped at 15%. The index weights are calculated with respect to the prices of the relevant companies on March 1. At the interim reviews, weightings after adjustment are left as close as possible to those of the day and are not re-capped. The index comprises a basket of shares, the numbers of which are based on the constituent weights, the index is composed of the following listings as of 1 April 2017. AMX index, the index of the next 25 largest funds on Euronext Amsterdam
11.
CAC 40
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The CAC40 is a benchmark French stock market index. The index represents a measure of the 40 most significant values among the 100 highest market caps on the Euronext Paris. It is one of the national indices of the pan-European stock exchange group Euronext alongside Brussels BEL20, Lisbons PSI-20. The CAC40 takes its name from the Paris Bourses early automation system Cotation Assistée en Continu and its base value of 1,000 was set on 31 December 1987, equivalent to a market capitalisation of 370,437,433,957.70 French francs. In common with many major world markets, its all-time high to date was reached at the peak of the dot-com bubble in September 2000. On 1 December 2003, the weighting system switched from being dependent on total market capitalisation to free float market cap only. The CAC40 index composition is reviewed quarterly by an independent Index Steering Committee, if any changes are made, they are effected a minimum of two weeks after the review meeting. At each review date, the companies listed on Euronext Paris are ranked according to free float market capitalisation, if a company has more than one class of shares traded on the exchange, only the most actively traded of these will be accepted into the index. The CAC40 is a capitalization-weighted index, the number of shares issued of a company is reviewed quarterly, on the third Friday of March, June, September and December. Since December 2003, the weightings of companies in the index have been capped at 15% at each quarterly index review. A capping factor is used to limit the weights to 15%, although the CAC40 is almost exclusively composed of French-domiciled companies, about 45% of its listed shares are owned by foreign investors, more than any other main European index. German, Japanese, American and British investors are amongst the most significant holders of CAC40 shares and this large percentage is due to the fact that CAC40 companies are more international, or multinational, than any other European market. CAC40 companies conduct over two-thirds of their business and employ over two-thirds of their workforce outside France, the index consists of the following companies as of the quarterly update effective 1st December 2016. The most recent composition can be found on euronext website, category, CAC40 CAC Next 20 List of French companies Official Euronext page for CAC40 Index FCHI, Summary for CAC40 INDEX - Yahoo. Finance Thomson Reuters page for. FCHI Bloomberg page for CAC, IND CAC40 on Investing. com Contains real time overview, components, historical data, live charts, technichal analysis and related news
12.
PSI-20
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The PSI-20 is a benchmark stock market index of companies that trade on Euronext Lisbon, the main stock exchange of Portugal. The index tracks the prices of the twenty listings with the largest market capitalisation and share turnover in the PSI Geral and it is one of the main national indices of the pan-European stock exchange group Euronext alongside Brussels BEL20, Pariss CAC40 and Amsterdams AEX. The PSI-20 was initiated on 31 December 1992 with a value of 3,000 index points. Another price surge sparked at the end of 1999 peaked with the indexs highest value to date,14,822. Prior to a change in the rules in July 2007. In a move to increase the stability of the index, the frequency was at this time switched to annually. Responsibility for the rules and composition of the index rests with an independent PSI Steering Committee, from the March 2008 reshuffle onwards, prospective PSI-20 companies are required to possess a trading velocity of at least 10% so as to safeguard the liquidity of the index. All listings on the exchange which satisfy this criterion are ranked by the total value of shares traded in the previous year. Any existing constituent which falls below 22nd place in the ranking is automatically removed from the index, if existing constituents occupy positions 21 and/or 22, they stay in the PSI-20 provided no non-constituents have risen above 18th position to replace them. Likewise, non-constituents holding positions 19 and/or 20 are not promoted unless a slot in the index is freed up by a constituent falling below 22nd place. This is in contrast to some other Euronext indices such as the AEX and this can occur either shortly after its IPO or on the first trading day of September. The existing constituent with the lowest share turnover is removed to free up a space in the index, the PSI-20 is a capitalization-weighted index. The market capitalisation used to calculate the weightings of each stock is the so-called free-float band adjusted market cap, weights are allowed to fluctuate freely after index changes are made, but are capped once again at the next reclassification. The capping factors used to scale down the weightings of the largest companies are recalculated each year at the index review, a list of the PSI-20 companies, as of March 21,2017. List of Portuguese companies List of stock market indices Euronext quote for PSI-20 Market information on Euronext website Official Euronext page for PSI-20 Index Bloomberg page for PSI20, IND
13.
Stock exchange
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A stock exchange or bourse is an exchange where stock brokers and traders can buy and/or sell stocks, bonds, and other securities. Stock exchanges may also provide facilities for issue and redemption of securities and other financial instruments, Securities traded on a stock exchange include stock issued by listed companies, unit trusts, derivatives, pooled investment products and bonds. Stock exchanges often function as continuous auction markets, with buyers and sellers consummating transactions at a central location, to be able to trade a security on a certain stock exchange, it must be listed there. Trade on an exchange is restricted to brokers who are members of the exchange, the initial public offering of stocks and bonds to investors is by definition done in the primary market and subsequent trading is done in the secondary market. A stock exchange is often the most important component of a stock market, supply and demand in stock markets are driven by various factors that, as in all free markets, affect the price of stocks. There is usually no obligation for stock to be issued via the exchange itself. Such trading may be off exchange or over-the-counter and this is the usual way that derivatives and bonds are traded. Increasingly, stock exchanges are part of a securities market. The idea of debt dates back to the ancient world, as evidenced for example by ancient Mesopotamian clay tablets recording interest-bearing loans, there is little consensus among scholars as to when corporate stock was first traded. Some see the key event as the Dutch East India Companys founding in 1602, economist Ulrike Malmendier of the University of California at Berkeley argues that a share market existed as far back as ancient Rome. One such service was the feeding of geese on the Capitoline Hill as a reward to the birds after their honking warned of a Gallic invasion in 390 B. C. Participants in such organizations had partes or shares, a concept mentioned various times by the statesman, in one speech, Cicero mentions shares that had a very high price at the time. Such evidence, in Malmendiers view, suggests the instruments were tradable, the societas declined into obscurity in the time of the emperors, as most of their services were taken over by direct agents of the state. Tradable bonds as a used type of security were a more recent innovation, spearheaded by the Italian city-states of the late medieval. While the Italian city-states produced the first transferable government bonds, they did not develop the other ingredient necessary to produce a fully fledged capital market, the Dutch East India Company became the first company to offer shares of stock. Control of the company was held tightly by its directors, with shareholders not having much influence on management or even access to the companys accounting statements. However, shareholders were rewarded well for their investment, the company paid an average dividend of over 16 percent per year from 1602 to 1650. Financial innovation in Amsterdam took many forms, by the 1620s, the company was expanding its securities issuance with the first use of corporate bonds
14.
Brussels
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Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, is a region of Belgium comprising 19 municipalities, including the City of Brussels which is the capital of Belgium. The Brussels-Capital Region is a part of both the French Community of Belgium and the Flemish Community, but is separate from the region of Flanders or Wallonia. The region has a population of 1.2 million and an area with a population of over 1.8 million. Brussels is the de facto capital of the European Union as it hosts a number of principal EU institutions, the secretariat of the Benelux and the headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization are also located in Brussels. Today, it is considered an Alpha global city, historically a Dutch-speaking city, Brussels has seen a language shift to French from the late 19th century onwards. Today, the majority language is French, and the Brussels-Capital Region is a bilingual enclave within the Flemish Region. All road signs, street names, and many advertisements and services are shown in both languages, Brussels is increasingly becoming multilingual with increasing numbers of migrants, expatriates and minority groups speaking their own languages. The most common theory of the origin of Brussels name is that it derives from the Old Dutch Broekzele or Broeksel, meaning marsh, Saint Vindicianus, the bishop of Cambrai made the first recorded reference to the place Brosella in 695 when it was still a hamlet. The origin of the settlement that was to become Brussels lies in Saint Gaugericus construction of a chapel on an island in the river Senne around 580. The official founding of Brussels is usually situated around 979, when Duke Charles of Lower Lotharingia transferred the relics of Saint Gudula from Moorsel to the Saint Gaugericus chapel, Charles would construct the first permanent fortification in the city, doing so on that same island. Lambert I of Leuven, Count of Leuven gained the County of Brussels around 1000 by marrying Charles daughter, as it grew to a population of around 30,000, the surrounding marshes were drained to allow for further expansion. The Counts of Leuven became Dukes of Brabant at about this time, in the 13th century, the city got its first walls. After the construction of the city walls in the early 13th century, to let the city expand, a second set of walls was erected between 1356 and 1383. Today, traces of it can still be seen, mostly because the small ring, Brabant had lost its independence, but Brussels became the Princely Capital of the prosperous Low Countries, and flourished. In 1516 Charles V, who had been heir of the Low Countries since 1506, was declared King of Spain in St. Michael and St. Gudula Cathedral in Brussels. Upon the death of his grandfather, Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor in 1519 and it was in the Palace complex at Coudenberg that Charles V abdicated in 1555. This impressive palace, famous all over Europe, had expanded since it had first become the seat of the Dukes of Brabant. In 1695, during the Nine Years War, King Louis XIV of France sent troops to bombard Brussels with artillery, together with the resulting fire, it was the most destructive event in the entire history of Brussels
15.
London
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London /ˈlʌndən/ is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south east of the island of Great Britain and it was founded by the Romans, who named it Londinium. Londons ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its 1. 12-square-mile medieval boundaries. London is a global city in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism. It is crowned as the worlds largest financial centre and has the fifth- or sixth-largest metropolitan area GDP in the world, London is a world cultural capital. It is the worlds most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the worlds largest city airport system measured by passenger traffic, London is the worlds leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. Londons universities form the largest concentration of education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted the modern Summer Olympic Games three times, London has a diverse range of people and cultures, and more than 300 languages are spoken in the region. Its estimated mid-2015 municipal population was 8,673,713, the largest of any city in the European Union, Londons urban area is the second most populous in the EU, after Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census. The citys metropolitan area is the most populous in the EU with 13,879,757 inhabitants, the city-region therefore has a similar land area and population to that of the New York metropolitan area. London was the worlds most populous city from around 1831 to 1925, Other famous landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Pauls Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, and The Shard. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world, the etymology of London is uncertain. It is an ancient name, found in sources from the 2nd century and it is recorded c.121 as Londinium, which points to Romano-British origin, and hand-written Roman tablets recovered in the city originating from AD 65/70-80 include the word Londinio. The earliest attempted explanation, now disregarded, is attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae and this had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had allegedly taken over the city and named it Kaerlud. From 1898, it was accepted that the name was of Celtic origin and meant place belonging to a man called *Londinos. The ultimate difficulty lies in reconciling the Latin form Londinium with the modern Welsh Llundain, which should demand a form *lōndinion, from earlier *loundiniom. The possibility cannot be ruled out that the Welsh name was borrowed back in from English at a later date, and thus cannot be used as a basis from which to reconstruct the original name. Until 1889, the name London officially applied only to the City of London, two recent discoveries indicate probable very early settlements near the Thames in the London area
16.
Lisbon
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Lisbon is the capital and the largest city of Portugal, with a population of 552,700 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km². Its urban area extends beyond the administrative limits with a population of around 2.7 million people. About 2.8 million people live in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area and it is continental Europes westernmost capital city and the only one along the Atlantic coast. Lisbon lies in the western Iberian Peninsula on the Atlantic Ocean, the westernmost areas of its metro area is the westernmost point of Continental Europe. Lisbon is recognised as a city because of its importance in finance, commerce, media, entertainment, arts, international trade, education. It is one of the economic centres on the continent, with a growing financial sector. Humberto Delgado Airport serves over 20 million passengers annually, as of 2015, and the motorway network, the city is the 7th-most-visited city in Southern Europe, after Istanbul, Rome, Barcelona, Madrid, Athens and Milan, with 1,740,000 tourists in 2009. The Lisbon region contributes with a higher GDP PPP per capita than any region in Portugal. Its GDP amounts to 96.3 billion USD and thus $32,434 per capita, the city occupies 32nd place of highest gross earnings in the world. Most of the headquarters of multinationals in the country are located in the Lisbon area and it is also the political centre of the country, as its seat of Government and residence of the Head of State. Lisbon is one of the oldest cities in the world, julius Caesar made it a municipium called Felicitas Julia, adding to the name Olissipo. Ruled by a series of Germanic tribes from the 5th century, in 1147, the Crusaders under Afonso Henriques reconquered the city and since then it has been a major political, economic and cultural centre of Portugal. Unlike most capital cities, Lisbons status as the capital of Portugal has never been granted or confirmed officially – by statute or in written form. Its position as the capital has formed through constitutional convention, making its position as de facto capital a part of the Constitution of Portugal. It has one of the warmest winters of any metropolis in Europe, the typical summer season lasts about four months, from June to September, although also in April temperatures sometimes reach around 25 °C. Although modern archaeological excavations show a Phoenician presence at this location since 1200 BC, another conjecture based on ancient hydronymy suggests that the name of the settlement derived from the pre-Roman appellation for the Tagus, Lisso or Lucio. Lisbons name was written Ulyssippo in Latin by the geographer Pomponius Mela and it was later referred to as Olisippo by Pliny the Elder and by the Greeks as Olissipo or Olissipona. The Indo-European Celts invaded in the 1st millennium BC, mixing with the Pre-Indo-European population and this indigenous settlement maintained commercial relations with the Phoenicians, which would account for the recent findings of Phoenician pottery and other material objects
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Paris
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Paris is the capital and most populous city of France. It has an area of 105 square kilometres and a population of 2,229,621 in 2013 within its administrative limits, the agglomeration has grown well beyond the citys administrative limits. By the 17th century, Paris was one of Europes major centres of finance, commerce, fashion, science, and the arts, and it retains that position still today. The aire urbaine de Paris, a measure of area, spans most of the Île-de-France region and has a population of 12,405,426. It is therefore the second largest metropolitan area in the European Union after London, the Metropole of Grand Paris was created in 2016, combining the commune and its nearest suburbs into a single area for economic and environmental co-operation. Grand Paris covers 814 square kilometres and has a population of 7 million persons, the Paris Region had a GDP of €624 billion in 2012, accounting for 30.0 percent of the GDP of France and ranking it as one of the wealthiest regions in Europe. The city is also a rail, highway, and air-transport hub served by two international airports, Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Orly. Opened in 1900, the subway system, the Paris Métro. It is the second busiest metro system in Europe after Moscow Metro, notably, Paris Gare du Nord is the busiest railway station in the world outside of Japan, with 262 millions passengers in 2015. In 2015, Paris received 22.2 million visitors, making it one of the top tourist destinations. The association football club Paris Saint-Germain and the rugby union club Stade Français are based in Paris, the 80, 000-seat Stade de France, built for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, is located just north of Paris in the neighbouring commune of Saint-Denis. Paris hosts the annual French Open Grand Slam tennis tournament on the red clay of Roland Garros, Paris hosted the 1900 and 1924 Summer Olympics and is bidding to host the 2024 Summer Olympics. The name Paris is derived from its inhabitants, the Celtic Parisii tribe. Thus, though written the same, the name is not related to the Paris of Greek mythology. In the 1860s, the boulevards and streets of Paris were illuminated by 56,000 gas lamps, since the late 19th century, Paris has also been known as Panam in French slang. Inhabitants are known in English as Parisians and in French as Parisiens and they are also pejoratively called Parigots. The Parisii, a sub-tribe of the Celtic Senones, inhabited the Paris area from around the middle of the 3rd century BC. One of the areas major north-south trade routes crossed the Seine on the île de la Cité, this place of land and water trade routes gradually became a town
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Derivative (finance)
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In finance, a derivative is a contract that derives its value from the performance of an underlying entity. This underlying entity can be an asset, index, or interest rate, some of the more common derivatives include forwards, futures, options, swaps, and variations of these such as synthetic collateralized debt obligations and credit default swaps. Most derivatives are traded over-the-counter or on a such as the Bombay Stock Exchange. Derivatives are one of the three categories of financial instruments, the other two being stocks and debt. More recent historical origin is Bucket shop that were outlawed a century ago, Derivatives are contracts between two parties that specify conditions under which payments are to be made between the parties. The assets include commodities, stocks, bonds, interest rates and currencies, but they can also be other derivatives, from the economic point of view, financial derivatives are cash flows, that are conditioned stochastically and discounted to present value. The market risk inherent in the asset is attached to the financial derivative through contractual agreements. The underlying asset does not have to be acquired, Derivatives therefore allow the breakup of ownership and participation in the market value of an asset. This also provides an amount of freedom regarding the contract design. That contractual freedom allows to modify the participation in the performance of the underlying asset almost arbitrarily, thus, the participation in the market value of the underlying can be effectively weaker, stronger, or implemented as inverse. Hence, specifically the price risk of the underlying asset can be controlled in almost every situation. Derivatives are more common in the era, but their origins trace back several centuries. One of the oldest derivatives is rice futures, which have traded on the Dojima Rice Exchange since the eighteenth century. Derivatives are broadly categorized by the relationship between the asset and the derivative, the type of underlying asset, the market in which they trade. Derivatives may broadly be categorized as lock or option products, lock products obligate the contractual parties to the terms over the life of the contract. Option products provide the buyer the right, but not the obligation to enter the contract under the terms specified, Derivatives can be used either for risk management or for speculation. Along with many financial products and services, derivatives reform is an element of the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform. The Act delegated many rule-making details of regulatory oversight to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, however, these are notional values, and some economists say that this value greatly exaggerates the market value and the true credit risk faced by the parties involved
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Equities
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The stock of a corporation is constituted of the equity stock of its owners. A single share of the stock represents fractional ownership of the corporation in proportion to the number of shares. In liquidation, the stock represents the residual assets of the company that would be due to stockholders after discharge of all senior claims such as secured and unsecured debt. Stockholders equity cannot be withdrawn from the company in a way that is intended to be detrimental to the companys creditors, the stock of a corporation is partitioned into shares, the total of which are stated at the time of business formation. Additional shares may subsequently be authorized by the shareholders and issued by the company. In some jurisdictions, each share of stock has a certain declared par value, in other jurisdictions, however, shares of stock may be issued without associated par value. Shares represent a fraction of ownership in a business, a business may declare different types of shares, each having distinctive ownership rules, privileges, or share values. Ownership of shares may be documented by issuance of a stock certificate. A stock certificate is a document that specifies the amount of shares owned by the shareholder. Stock typically takes the form of shares of common stock or preferred stock. As a unit of ownership, common stock typically carries voting rights that can be exercised in corporate decisions, shares of such stock are called convertible preferred shares. New equity issue may have specific legal clauses attached that differentiate them from previous issues of the issuer. Some shares of stock may be issued without the typical voting rights, for instance, or some shares may have special rights unique to them. Often, new issues that have not been registered with a governing body may be restricted from resale for certain periods of time. Preferred stock may be hybrid by having the qualities of bonds of fixed returns and they also have preference in the payment of dividends over common stock and also have been given preference at the time of liquidation over common stock. They have other features of accumulation in dividend, Rule 144 Stock is an American term given to shares of stock subject to SEC Rule 144, Selling Restricted and Control Securities. Under Rule 144, restricted and controlled securities are acquired in unregistered form, investors either purchase or take ownership of these securities through private sales from the issuing company or from an affiliate of the issuer. Investors wishing to sell these securities are subject to different rules than those selling traditional common or preferred stock and these individuals will only be allowed to liquidate their securities after meeting the specific conditions set forth by SEC Rule 144
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Bond (finance)
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In finance, a bond is an instrument of indebtedness of the bond issuer to the holders. The most common types of bonds include municipal bonds and corporate bonds, interest is usually payable at fixed intervals. Very often the bond is negotiable, that is, the ownership of the instrument can be transferred in the secondary market and this means that once the transfer agents at the bank medallion stamp the bond, it is highly liquid on the second market. Thus, a bond is a form of loan or IOU, the holder of the bond is the lender, the issuer of the bond is the borrower, and the coupon is the interest. Bonds provide the borrower with funds to finance long-term investments, or, in the case of government bonds. Certificates of deposit or short term commercial paper are considered to be money market instruments and not bonds, the main difference is in the length of the term of the instrument. Bonds and stocks are both securities, but the difference between the two is that stockholders have an equity stake in the company, whereas bondholders have a creditor stake in the company. Being a creditor, bondholders have priority over stockholders and this means they will be repaid in advance of stockholders, but will rank behind secured creditors in the event of bankruptcy. Another difference is that usually have a defined term, or maturity, after which the bond is redeemed. An exception is a bond, such as a consol, which is a perpetuity, that is. Bonds are issued by authorities, credit institutions, companies. The most common process for issuing bonds is through underwriting, when a bond issue is underwritten, one or more securities firms or banks, forming a syndicate, buy the entire issue of bonds from the issuer and re-sell them to investors. The security firm takes the risk of being unable to sell on the issue to end investors. Primary issuance is arranged by bookrunners who arrange the bond issue, have contact with investors and act as advisers to the bond issuer in terms of timing. The bookrunner is listed first among all participating in the issuance in the tombstone ads commonly used to announce bonds to the public. The bookrunners willingness to underwrite must be discussed prior to any decision on the terms of the issue as there may be limited demand for the bonds. In contrast, government bonds are issued in an auction. In some cases, both members of the public and banks may bid for bonds, in other cases, only market makers may bid for bonds
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Commodities
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In economics, a commodity is a marketable item produced to satisfy wants or needs. Economic commodities comprise goods and services, the word commodity came into use in English in the 15th century, from the French commodité, amenity, convenience. Going further back, the French word derives from the Latin commoditas, meaning suitability, convenience, the Latin word commodus meant variously appropriate, proper measure, time, or condition, and advantage, benefit. The term commodity is specifically used for a good or service when the demand for it has no qualitative differentiation across a market. In other words, a commodity good or service has full or partial but substantial fungibility, that is, the market treats its instances as equivalent or nearly so with no regard to who produced them. As the saying goes, From the taste of wheat, it is not possible to tell who produced it, a Russian serf, petroleum and copper are other examples of such commodities, their supply and demand being a part of one universal market. Items such as systems, on the other hand, have many aspects of product differentiation, such as the brand, the user interface. The demand for one type of stereo may be larger than demand for another. In contrast, one of the characteristics of a commodity good is that its price is determined as a function of its market as a whole, well-established physical commodities have actively traded spot and derivative markets. Generally, these are basic resources and agricultural products such as ore, sugar. Soft commodities are goods that are grown, while hard commodities are ones that are extracted through mining, there is another important class of energy commodities which includes electricity, gas, coal and oil. Electricity has the characteristic that it is usually uneconomical to store, hence. Commoditization occurs as a goods or services market loses differentiation across its supply base, as such, goods that formerly carried premium margins for market participants have become commodities, such as generic pharmaceuticals and DRAM chips. Following this trend, nanomaterials are emerging from carrying premium profit margins for market participants to a status of commodification, there is a spectrum of commoditization, rather than a binary distinction of commodity versus differentiable product. Many products degree of commoditization depends on the mentality and means. For example, milk, eggs, and notebook paper are not differentiated by many customers, for them, other customers take into consideration other factors besides price, such as environmental sustainability and animal welfare. This is a list of companies trading globally in commodities, descending by size as of October 28,2011, on a commodity exchange, it is the underlying standard stated in the contract that defines the commodity, not any quality inherent in a specific producers product. Commodities exchanges include, Bourse Africa Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Chicago Board of Trade Chicago Mercantile Exchange Dalian Commodity Exchange Euronext and these markets will quickly respond to changes in supply and demand to find an equilibrium price and quantity
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New York Stock Exchange
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The New York Stock Exchange, is an American stock exchange located at 11 Wall Street, Lower Manhattan, New York City, New York. It is by far the worlds largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its companies at US$19.3 trillion as of June 2016. The average daily trading value was approximately US$169 billion in 2013, the NYSE trading floor is located at 11 Wall Street and is composed of 21 rooms used for the facilitation of trading. A fifth trading room, located at 30 Broad Street, was closed in February 2007, the main building and the 11 Wall Street building were designated National Historic Landmarks in 1978. The NYSE is owned by Intercontinental Exchange, an American holding company that it also lists, previously, it was part of NYSE Euronext, which was formed by the NYSEs 2007 merger with Euronext. NYSE and Euronext now operate as divisions of Intercontinental Exchange, the NYSE has been the subject of several lawsuits regarding fraud or breach of duty and in 2004 was sued by its former CEO for breach of contract and defamation. The earliest recorded organization of securities trading in New York among brokers directly dealing with each other can be traced to the Buttonwood Agreement, previously securities exchange had been intermediated by the auctioneers who also conducted more mundane auctions of commodities such as wheat and tobacco. In 1817 the stockbrokers of New York operating under the Buttonwood Agreement instituted new reforms, after sending a delegation to Philadelphia to observe the organization of their board of brokers, restrictions on manipulative trading were adopted as well as formal organs of governance. Several locations were used between 1817 and 1865, when the present location was adopted, the invention of the electrical telegraph consolidated markets, and New Yorks market rose to dominance over Philadelphia after weathering some market panics better than other alternatives. The Civil War greatly stimulated speculative securities trading in New York, by 1869 membership had to be capped, and has been sporadically increased since. The latter half of the century saw rapid growth in securities trading. Securities trade in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was prone to panics. The Stock Exchange Luncheon Club was situated on the floor from 1898 until its closure in 2006. The main building, located at 18 Broad Street, between the corners of Wall Street and Exchange Place, was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1978, as was the 11 Wall Street building. The NYSE announced its plans to merge with Archipelago on April 21,2005, NYSEs governing board voted to merge with rival Archipelago on December 6,2005, and became a for-profit, public company. It began trading under the name NYSE Group on March 8,2006, Wall Street is the leading US money center for international financial activities and the foremost US location for the conduct of wholesale financial services. It comprises a matrix of wholesale financial sectors, financial markets, financial institutions, the principal sectors are securities industry, commercial banking, asset management, and insurance. Prior to the acquisition of NYSE Euronext by the ICE in 2013, Marsh Carter was the Chairman of the NYSE, presently, the chairman is Jeffrey Sprecher
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NYSE Euronext
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NYSE Euronext, Inc. was a Euro-American multinational financial services corporation that operated multiple securities exchanges, including the New York Stock Exchange, Euronext and NYSE Arca. NYSE merged with Archipelago Holdings on March 7,2006, forming NYSE Group, on April 4,2007, NYSE Group, Inc. merged with Euronext N. V. to form the first global equities exchange, with its headquarters in Lower Manhattan. The components were part of IntercontinentalExchange, although it has now spun off Euronext. Spanning multiple asset classes and six countries, the companys exchanges include the New York Stock Exchange, Liffe, Euronext, the company also manages the leading European derivatives exchange by value of trading. NYSE Euronext is part of the S&P500 index and the exchange operator in the S&P100 index. NYSE Euronext is a Delaware corporation, though the executive office of NYSE Euronext is located at 11 Wall Street, New York. The European headquarters are at 39 Rue Cambon,75001 in Paris, the acquisition of Archipelago, which held possession of highly regarded market technology at the time, was intended to bring automated trading to NYSE markets and increase efficiency. For the first time in its 213-year history, the New York Stock Exchange became a for-profit company, owners of the 1,366 NYSE seats received 80,177 shares of NYSE Group stock plus $300,000 in cash and $70,571 in dividends for each seat. The completion of this deal created two new branches of the NYSE Group, NYSE Arca and NYSE Arca Europe, which launched after the acquisition of Euronext, in April 2006, NYSE Group and Euronext signed a merger agreement, subject to shareholder vote and regulatory approval. Euronext shareholders gave approval to the transaction on December 19,2006, in April 2007 the Euronext shareholders tendering shares can receive NYSE shares and cash amounting to $11,141 million from NYSE Euronext for their assets. About 94% of the 112,557,259 shares are tendered in the first round, the NYSE Group and Euronext merger on April 4,2007, signaled the creation of the worlds largest and most liquid exchange group—NYSE Euronext. NYSE Euronext, through its wholly owned subsidiary NYSE Technologies, Inc. acquired NYFIX, NYFIX is a provider of solutions that optimize trading efficiency. NYSE Euronext incorporated NYFIXs trading software into the package of offerings to customers. The shares of companies were temporarily frozen on the news due to the risk of large price movements. A successful deal would see the new company becoming the worlds largest stock exchange operator with a capitalization of listed companies equal to $15 trillion. The proposed group would have dual headquarters, in Deutsche Boerses newly built green tower near Frankfurt, Germany and it would be led by a board with seventeen members—fifteen directors plus the Chairman and the CEO. Of the fifteen directors, nine to be designated by Deutsche Boerse, on July 7,2011, NYSE Euronext shareholders voted in favor of the merger, and on July 13,2011, Deutsche Boerse shareholders approved the deal as well. These decisions move the two closer to completing the transaction, which must still pass through forty separate regulatory approval processes to be finalized
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Intercontinental Exchange
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Intercontinental Exchange is an American business and finance company founded on May 11,2000 by Jeffrey Sprecher, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. It owns exchanges and clearing houses for financial and commodity markets, ICE futures exchanges in the United States, Canada and Europe, Liffe futures exchanges in the US and Europe, New York Stock Exchange, Equity options exchanges, OTC energy, credit and equity markets. ICE also owns and operates 5 central clearing houses, ICE Clear Europe, ICE Clear Canada, ICE Clear Credit, and The Clearing Corporation. ICE has offices in New York, London, Chicago, Houston, Winnipeg, Amsterdam, Calgary, Washington, D. C. Sprecher, founder, chairman, and Chief Executive Officer, was a power plant developer who spotted a need for a market in natural gas used to power generators. In May 2000, ICE was founded by Sprecher and backed by Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, BP, Total, Shell, Deutsche Bank, the new exchange offered the trading community better price transparency, more efficiency, greater liquidity and lower costs than manual trading. While the companys focus was energy products, acquisitions have expanded its activity into soft commodities, foreign exchange. Sprecher worked closely with the Federal Reserve to serve as its over-the-counter derivatives clearing house, US regulators were keen on the kind of clearing house for opaque over-the-counter derivatives as a risk management device. In the absence of a central counterparty - which would guarantee pay-outs should a party be unable to do so - there was a high risk of massive market disruption. The principal backers for ICE US Trust were the financial institutions most affected by the crisis. Sprechers clearing house cleared their global credit default swaps in exchange for sharing profits with these banks, by 2010, Intercontinental Exchange had cleared more than $10 trillion in credit default swaps through its subsidiaries, ICE Trust CDS. Since 2003, ICE has partnered with the Chicago Climate Exchange to host its electronic marketplaces, in April 2005, the entire ICE portfolio of energy futures became fully electronic and ICE closed International Petroleum Exchanges high profile and historic trading floor. ICE became a traded company on November 16,2005. The company expanded rapidly in 2007, acquiring the New York Board of Trade, in March 2007 ICE made an unsuccessful $9.9 billion bid for the Chicago Board of Trade, which was instead acquired by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. IntercontinentalExchange Inc. the upstart Atlanta-based energy bourse purchased the privately held 120-year-old Winnipeg Commodity Exchange, known for its canola futures contract, the Winnipeg Commodity Exchange was renamed ICE Futures Canada as of January 1,2008. IntercontinentalExchange converted Winnipeg Commodity Exchange contracts to the IntercontinentalExchange platform, IntercontinentalExchange maintained an office and small core staff in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The Manitoba Securities Commission oversee its operations, in January 2008, ICE partnered with Canadas TSX Groups Natural Gas Exchange, expanding their offering to clearing and settlement services for physical OTC natural gas contracts. In April 2010, ICE acquired Climate Exchange PLC for 395 million pounds, exchange-traded emissions products were first offered by the European Climate Exchange, which was established in 2005, by listing products on the ICE Futures Europes trading platform
25.
Initial public offering
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Through this process, a privately held company transforms into a public company. Initial public offerings are used by companies to raise the expansion of capital, possibly to monetize the investments of early private investors. A company selling shares is never required to repay the capital to its public investors, after the IPO, when shares trade freely in the open market, money passes between public investors. The IPO process is known as going public. Details of the offering are disclosed to potential purchasers in the form of a lengthy document known as a prospectus. Most companies undertake an IPO with the assistance of an investment banking firm acting in the capacity of an underwriter, underwriters provide several services, including help with correctly assessing the value of shares and establishing a public market for shares. Alternative methods such as the dutch auction have also been explored, in terms of size and public participation, the two most notable examples of this method is the Google IPO and Snapchats parent company Snap Inc. China has recently emerged as a major IPO market, with several of the largest IPOs taking place in that country, the earliest form of a company which issued public shares was the case of the publicani during the Roman Republic. Like modern joint-stock companies, the publicani were legal bodies independent of their members whose ownership was divided into shares, there is evidence that these shares were sold to public investors and traded in a type of over-the-counter market in the Forum, near the Temple of Castor and Pollux. The shares fluctuated in value, encouraging the activity of speculators, mere evidence remains of the prices for which partes were sold, the nature of initial public offerings, or a description of stock market behavior. Publicanis lost favor with the fall of the Republic and the rise of the Empire, the first modern IPO occurred in March 1602 when the Dutch East India Company offered shares of the company to the public in order to raise capital. All the shares were tradable, and the shareholders received receipts for the purchase, a share certificate documenting payment and ownership such as we know today was not issued but ownership was instead entered in the companys share register. In the United States, the first IPO was the offering of Bank of North America around 1783. An IPO, therefore, allows a company to tap into a pool of potential investors to provide itself with capital for future growth, repayment of debt. A company selling shares is never required to repay the capital to its public investors. Those investors must endure the unpredictable nature of the market to price. After the IPO, when shares trade freely in the open market, for early private investors who choose to sell shares as part of the IPO process, the IPO represents an opportunity to monetize their investment. This type of offering is not dilutive, since no new shares are being created, once a company is listed, it is able to issue additional common shares in a number of different ways, one of which is the follow-on offering
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Paris Bourse
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The Paris Bourse is the historical Paris stock exchange, known as Euronext Paris from 2000 onwards. The building, known as the Palais Brongniart, is located in the Place de la Bourse, in the II arrondissement, historically, stock trading took place at several spots in Paris, including rue Quincampoix, rue Vivienne, and the back of the Opéra Garnier. Brogniart had spontaneously submitted his project, which was a rectangular neoclassical Roman temple with a giant Corinthian colonnade enclosing a vaulted and arcaded central chamber and his designs were greatly admired by Napoleon and won Brogniart a major public commission at the end of his career. Initially praised, the building was attacked for academic dullness. The authorities had required Brogniart to modify his designs, and after Brogniarts death in 1813, Labarre altered them even further, from 1901 to 1905 Jean-Baptiste-Frederic Cavel designed the addition of two lateral wings, resulting in a cruciform plan with innumerable columns. According to the architectural historian Andrew Ayers, these alterations did nothing to improve the reputation of this uninspiring monument. From the second half of the 19th century, official stock markets in Paris were operated by the Compagnie des agents de change, the number of dealers in each of the different trading areas of the Bourse was limited. There were around 60 agents de change, in Paris, only agents de change could receive a commission, at a rate fixed by law, for acting as an intermediary. However, parallel arrangements were usual in order to some clients quote. The Commodities Exchange was housed in the building until 1889. Moreover, until about the middle of the 20th century, a market known as La Coulisse was in operation. Until the late 1980s, the market operated as an open outcry exchange, in 1986, the Paris Bourse started to implement an electronic trading system. This was known generically as CATS, but the Paris version was called CAC, by 1989, quotations were fully automated. The Palais Brongniart hosted the French financial derivatives exchanges MATIF and MONEP, in the late 1990s, the Paris Bourse launched the Euronext initiative, an alliance of several European stock exchanges. List of works by James Pradier External sculpture Lehmann, P. -J,1991 La Bourse de Paris, Paris, Dunod. 1997 Histoire de la Bourse de Paris, Paris, PUF, muniesa, F.2005 Contenir le marché, la transition de la criée à la cotation électronique à la Bourse de Paris, Sociologie du Travail 47, 485-501. Walker, D. A.2001 A factual account of the functioning of the nineteenth-century Paris Bourse, European Journal of the History of Economic Thought 8, 186-207. Foucault, T. and Hillion, P.1997 Microstructure des marchés financiers, institutions, modèles et tests empiriques, Paris, hamon, J.1995 Marché dactions, architecture et microstructure, Paris, Economica
27.
Brussels Stock Exchange
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The Brussels Stock Exchange, abbreviated to BSE, was founded in Brussels, Belgium, by decree of Napoleon in 1801. The most well known index on the Brussels Stock Exchange is the BEL20 and it now belongs to the NYSE Euronext group, the first global stock exchange. The building that houses the Brussels Stock Exchange does not have a distinct name and it is located on Boulevard Anspach, and is the namesake of the Place de la Bourse/Beursplein, which is, after the Grand Place, the second most important square in Brussels. As part of the covering of the river Senne for health and aesthetic reasons in the 1860s and 1870s, architect Léon-Pierre Suys, as part of his proposal for covering of the Senne, designed a building to become the centre of the rapidly expanding business sector. It was to be located on the butter market, on the newly created Anspach Boulevard. The building was erected from 1868 to 1873, and mixes elements of the Neo-Renaissance, euro. nm Euronext 100 Euronext Amsterdam Euronext Lisbon Euronext Paris A Euronext pamphlet describing the history of the Brussels Stock Exchange
28.
Amsterdam Stock Exchange
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The Amsterdam Stock Exchange is the former name for the stock exchange based in Amsterdam. It merged on 22 September 2000 with the Brussels Stock Exchange and the Paris Stock Exchange to form Euronext, the Amsterdam Stock Exchange was established in 1602 by the Dutch East India Company for dealings in its printed stocks and bonds. It was subsequently renamed the Amsterdam Bourse and was the first to begin trading in securities. Although it is considered to be the first stock market, Fernand Braudel argues that this is not precisely true, It is not quite accurate to call the first stock market. The statutes of Verona in 1318 confirm the existence of the settlement or forward market, in 1428, the jurist Bartolomeo de Bosco protested against the sale of forward loca in Genoa. All evidence points to the Mediterranean as the cradle of the stock market, but what was new in Amsterdam was the volume, the fluidity of the market and publicity it received, and the speculative freedom of transactions. That said, it remains the first incarnation of what we could today recognize as a stock market, the European Option Exchange was founded in 1978 in Amsterdam as a futures and options exchange. In 1983 it started a market index, called the EOE index. It should be noted that forward contracts, options, and other sophisticated instruments were traded on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange well before this, in 1997 the Amsterdam Stock Exchange and the EOE merged, and its blue chip index was renamed AEX, for Amsterdam EXchange. It is now managed by Euronext Amsterdam, on 3 October 2011, Princess Máxima opened the new trading floor of the Amsterdam Stock Exchange. The former Stock Exchange building was the Beurs van Berlage, the Amsterdam stock exchange is considered the oldest “modern” securities market in the world. It was shortly after the establishment of the Dutch East India Company in 1602 when equities began trading on a basis as a secondary market to trade its shares. Prior to that, the market existed primarily for the exchange of commodities, in that year, the States General of the Netherlands granted the VOC a 21-year charter over all Dutch trade in Asia and quasi-governmental powers. The monopolistic terms of the charter granted the VOC complete authority over trade defenses, war armaments. The first multi-national corporation with significant resource interests was thereby established, in addition, the high level of risk associated with trade in Asia gave the VOC its private ownership structure. In the Amsterdam East India House alone,1,143 investors subscribed for over ƒ3,679,915 or €100 million in today’s dollars, the subscription terms of each stock purchase offered shareholders the option to transfer their shares to a third party. Quickly a secondary market arose in the East India House for resale of this stock through the official bookkeeper. After an agreement had been reached between the two parties, the shares were transferred from seller to buyer in the “capital book. ”The official account, held by the East India House, encouraged investors to trade
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Financial market
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A financial market is a market in which people trade financial securities, commodities, and other fungible items of value at low transaction costs and at prices that reflect supply and demand. Securities include stocks and bonds, and commodities include precious metals or agricultural products, in economics, typically, the term market means the aggregate of possible buyers and sellers of a certain good or service and the transactions between them. The term market is used for what are more strictly exchanges, organizations that facilitate the trade in financial securities. This may be a location or an electronic system. Another common use of the term is as a catchall for all the markets in the financial sector, capital markets which to consist of, Stock markets, which provide financing through the issuance of shares or common stock, and enable the subsequent trading thereof. Bond markets, which provide financing through the issuance of bonds, commodity markets, which facilitate the trading of commodities. Money markets, which provide short term debt financing and investment, derivatives markets, which provide instruments for the management of financial risk. Futures markets, which provide standardized forward contracts for trading products at some future date, Foreign exchange markets, which facilitate the trading of foreign exchange. Spot market Interbanks market The capital markets may also be divided into primary markets, newly formed securities are bought or sold in primary markets, such as during initial public offerings. Secondary markets allow investors to buy and sell existing securities, the transactions in primary markets exist between issuers and investors, while secondary market transactions exist among investors. Liquidity is an aspect of securities that are traded in secondary markets. Liquidity refers to the ease with which a security can be sold without a loss of value, securities with an active secondary market mean that there are many buyers and sellers at a given point in time. Investors benefit from liquid securities because they can sell their assets whenever they want, Financial markets attract funds from investors and channel them to corporations—they thus allow corporations to finance their operations and achieve growth. Money markets allow firms to borrow funds on a term basis. Without financial markets, borrowers would have difficulty finding lenders themselves, intermediaries such as banks, Investment Banks, and Boutique Investment Banks can help in this process. Banks take deposits from those who have money to save and they can then lend money from this pool of deposited money to those who seek to borrow. Banks popularly lend money in the form of loans and mortgages, a good example of a financial market is a stock exchange. A company can raise money by selling shares to investors and its shares can be bought or sold
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European Union
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The European Union is a political and economic union of 28 member states that are located primarily in Europe. It has an area of 4,475,757 km2, the EU has developed an internal single market through a standardised system of laws that apply in all member states. Within the Schengen Area, passport controls have been abolished, a monetary union was established in 1999 and came into full force in 2002, and is composed of 19 EU member states which use the euro currency. The EU operates through a system of supranational and intergovernmental decision-making. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community, the community and its successors have grown in size by the accession of new member states and in power by the addition of policy areas to its remit. While no member state has left the EU or its antecedent organisations, the Maastricht Treaty established the European Union in 1993 and introduced European citizenship. The latest major amendment to the basis of the EU. The EU as a whole is the largest economy in the world, additionally,27 out of 28 EU countries have a very high Human Development Index, according to the United Nations Development Programme. In 2012, the EU was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, through the Common Foreign and Security Policy, the EU has developed a role in external relations and defence. The union maintains permanent diplomatic missions throughout the world and represents itself at the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the G7, because of its global influence, the European Union has been described as an emerging superpower. After World War II, European integration was seen as an antidote to the nationalism which had devastated the continent. 1952 saw the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community, the supporters of the Community included Alcide De Gasperi, Jean Monnet, Robert Schuman, and Paul-Henri Spaak. These men and others are credited as the Founding fathers of the European Union. In 1957, Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany signed the Treaty of Rome and they also signed another pact creating the European Atomic Energy Community for co-operation in developing nuclear energy. Both treaties came into force in 1958, the EEC and Euratom were created separately from the ECSC, although they shared the same courts and the Common Assembly. The EEC was headed by Walter Hallstein and Euratom was headed by Louis Armand, Euratom was to integrate sectors in nuclear energy while the EEC would develop a customs union among members. During the 1960s, tensions began to show, with France seeking to limit supranational power, Jean Rey presided over the first merged Commission. In 1973, the Communities enlarged to include Denmark, Ireland, Norway had negotiated to join at the same time, but Norwegian voters rejected membership in a referendum
31.
NASDAQ
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The Nasdaq Stock Market is an American stock exchange. It is the second-largest exchange in the world by market capitalization, the exchange platform is owned by Nasdaq, Inc. which also owns the Nasdaq Nordic and Nasdaq Baltic stock market network and several other US stock and options exchanges. When it was founded, NASDAQ stood for the acronym of National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations, NASDAQ was founded in 1971 by the National Association of Securities Dealers, which divested itself of NASDAQ in a series of sales in 2000 and 2001. The Nasdaq Stock Market is owned and operated by Nasdaq, Inc. the stocks of which were listed on its own stock exchange marketing July 2,2002, when the Nasdaq Stock Market began trading on February 8,1971, it was the worlds first electronic stock market. At first, it was merely a system and did not provide a way to perform electronic trades. The Nasdaq Stock Market helped lower the spread but was unpopular among brokerages which made much of their money on the spread. As late as 1987, the NASDAQ exchange was still referred to as OTC in media. Over the years, the Nasdaq Stock Market became more of a market by adding trade and volume reporting. The Nasdaq Stock Market attracted new companies such as Microsoft, Apple, Cisco, Oracle and Dell. Its main index is the NASDAQ Composite, which has published since its inception. In 1992, the Nasdaq Stock Market joined with the London Stock Exchange to form the first intercontinental linkage of securities markets, the National Association of Securities Dealers spun off the Nasdaq Stock Market in 2000 to form a publicly traded company. In 2006, the status of the Nasdaq Stock Market was changed from a market to a licensed national securities exchange. In 2007, Nasdaq merged with OMX, an exchange operator in the Nordic countries, expanded its global footprint. NASDAQ OMX could be looking to acquire the American exchanges cash equities business, at the time, NYSE Euronext’s market value was $9.75 billion. Nasdaq was valued at $5.78 billion, while ICE was valued at $9.45 billion. Late in the month, Nasdaq was reported to be considering asking either ICE or the Chicago Mercantile Exchange to join in what would probably have to be, if it proceeded, an $11–12 billion counterbid. The European Association of Securities Dealers Automatic Quotation System was founded as a European equivalent to the Nasdaq Stock Market and it was purchased by NASDAQ in 2001 and became NASDAQ Europe. Operations were shut down, however, as a result of the burst of the dot-com bubble, in 2007, NASDAQ Europe was revived as Equiduct, and is currently operating under Börse Berlin
32.
London Stock Exchange
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The London Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located in the City of London in the United Kingdom. As of December 2014, the Exchange had a capitalisation of US$6.06 trillion. The Exchange was founded in 1801 and its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Pauls Cathedral in the City of London, the Exchange is part of the London Stock Exchange Group. London Stock Exchange is one of the world’s oldest stock exchanges, London Stock Exchange Group was created in October 2007 when London Stock Exchange merged with Milan Stock Exchange, Borsa Italiana. The Royal Exchange had been founded by English financier Thomas Gresham on the model of the Antwerp Bourse and it was opened by Elizabeth I of England in 1571. During the 17th century, stockbrokers were not allowed in the Royal Exchange due to their rude manners and they had to operate from other establishments in the vicinity, notably Jonathans Coffee-House. At that coffee house, a broker named John Casting started listing the prices of a few commodities, exchange rates and certain key provisions such as salt, coal, originally, this was not a daily list and was only published a few days of the week. This list and activity was moved to Garraway’s coffee house. Public auctions during this period were conducted for the duration that a length of tallow candle could burn, as stocks grew, with new companies joining to raise capital, the royal court also raised some monies. These are the earliest evidence of organised trading in securities in London. After Greshams Royal Exchange building was destroyed in the Great Fire of London, it was rebuilt and this was a move away from coffee houses and a step towards the modern model of stock exchange. The Royal Exchange not only housed brokers but also merchants and merchandise and this was the birth of a regulated stock market, which had teething problems in the shape of unlicensed brokers. In order to regulate these, Parliament brought out an act in 1697 that levied heavy penalties and it also set a fixed number of brokers, which was later increased as the size of the trade grew. The street in which they were now dealing was known as Exchange Alley, Parliament tried to regulate this and ban the unofficial traders from the Change streets. Traders became weary of bubbles when companies rose quickly and fell, after the Seven Years War, trade at Jonathans coffee house boomed again. In 1773, Jonathan, together with 150 other brokers, formed a club and opened a new and this now had a set entrance fee, through which traders could enter the stock room and trade securities. It was, however, not a location for trading. Fraud was also rife during these times and in order to such dealings
33.
Securities and Exchange Commission
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The U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission is an independent agency of the United States federal government. The SEC was created by Section 4 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the SEC has a three-part mission, to protect investors, maintain fair, orderly, and efficient markets, and facilitate capital formation. To achieve its mandate, the SEC enforces the requirement that public companies submit quarterly and annual reports. MD&A will usually touch on the upcoming year, outlining future goals. In an attempt to level the field for all investors. Quarterly and semiannual reports from companies are crucial for investors to make sound decisions when investing in the capital markets. Unlike banking, investment in the markets is not guaranteed by the federal government. The potential for big gains needs to be weighed against that of sizable losses, the SEC makes reports available to the public through the EDGAR system. The SEC also offers publications on investment-related topics for public education, the same online system also takes tips and complaints from investors to help the SEC track down violators of the securities laws. The SEC adheres to a policy of never commenting on the existence or status of an ongoing investigation. Prior to the enactment of the securities laws and the creation of the SEC. They were enacted and enforced at the level, and regulated the offering. Though the specific provisions of these laws varied among states, they all required the registration of all offerings and sales, as well as of every U. S. stockbroker. However, these blue sky laws were found to be ineffective. For example, the Investment Bankers Association told its members as early as 1915 that they could ignore blue sky laws by making securities offerings across state lines through the mail. After holding hearings on abuses on interstate frauds, Congress passed the Securities Act of 1933, the subsequent Securities Exchange Act of 1934 regulates sales of securities in the secondary market. The Securities Act of 1933 is also known as the Truth in Securities Act and its goal was to increase public trust in the capital markets by requiring uniform disclosure of information about public securities offerings. For the first year of the enactment, the enforcement of the statute rested with the Federal Trade Commission
34.
Christopher Cox
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Prior to his Washington service he was a practicing attorney, teacher, and entrepreneur. Cox was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, after graduating from Saint Thomas Academy in Mendota Heights, Minnesota in 1970, Cox earned his B. A. at the University of Southern California in 1973, following an accelerated three-year course. He was also a member of Delta Tau Delta fraternity, in 1977, he earned both an M. B. A. from Harvard Business School and a J. D. from Harvard Law School, where he was an Editor of the Harvard Law Review. From 1977–1978, he served as law clerk to Judge Herbert Choy of the U. S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. In October 1978, Cox was paralyzed from the waist down following a serious off-road Jeep accident in the rainforest on the Hawaiʻian island of Molokaʻi and he eventually regained the ability to walk but wore a harness of steel bars and leather straps for six months. He still has two screws in his back, and according to a 2005 Fortune magazine profile, “has been in pain every day for the past 27 years. ”Since he cant sit for extended periods of time. As a contestant on the NBC-TV game show Password Plus, Cox won more than $5,000 over multiple appearances, according to a re-broadcast of Password Plus on the cable network GSN, Cox appeared in 1980 and won $5,400 cash. From 1977 to 1986, Cox was first an associate and then partner with the law firm of Latham & Watkins. At the time of his retirement in 1986 he was the Partner in Charge of the Corporate Department in the Orange County office, in 1982–83, Cox took a leave of absence from Latham & Watkins to teach federal income tax at Harvard Business School. In 1984, Cox co-founded Context Corporation, which produced daily English reproductions of the leading Soviet state-controlled newspaper, the publication was used chiefly by U. S. universities and U. S. government agencies, and was eventually distributed to customers in 26 countries around the world. The company had no connection to the Soviet government, during the second term of Ronald Reagan from 1986 to 1988, he served as Senior Associate Counsel to the President. Cox was elected to Congress in 1988 from what was then Californias 40th District and he was re-elected eight more times from this Orange County-based district, which was renumbered as the 47th District in 1993 and the 48th District in 2003. Cox met Árpád Göncz in 1989, and when Cox was later married, he spent part of his honeymoon in Hungary with then-President Göncz and his wife Mária Zsuzsanna Göntér. Cox met Dr. Vytautas Landsbergis, a professor at the Conservatory of Music in Vilnius, in 1989, well before the successful reestablishment of Lithuanian independence. The night Landsbergis was elected President of Lithuania, he embraced Cox on the tarmac at the airport in Vilnius after the Soviet Union had held Cox in East Berlin for a prolonged period. In May 1998, Cox was presented with the Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas, Cox has some fluency in the Russian language. With U. S. Rep. Barney Frank as his chief co-sponsor, Cox authored legislation in 1997 to privatize the National Helium Reserve, as of 2004, this was the third-largest privatization in U. S. history, surpassing the value of the 1988 Conrail privatization. When Congress established the Bipartisan Study Group on Enhancing Multilateral Export Controls through federal legislation in 1999, the group published a unanimous report in 2001 recommending wholesale modernization of U. S. export controls
35.
John Thain
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John Alexander Thain is an American businessman, investment banker, and former chairman and CEO of the CIT Group. Thain was the last chairman and chief officer of Merrill Lynch before its merger with Bank of America. He was designated to become president of global banking, securities, and wealth management at the combined company. Before he came to Merrill, Thain had been the CEO of the New York Stock Exchange from January 2004 to December 2007. He also worked at Goldman Sachs, as head of its mortgage securities division from 1985 to 1990, Thain reportedly was one of the runners-up to head Citigroup. Thain arranged the sale of Merrill to Bank of America at $29 per share, the deal valued the brokerage at $50 billion. Upon joining Merrill Lynch, Thain received a $15 million signing bonus, the firm announced that Thain would receive at least $50 million a year and could be paid as much as $120 million a year, based on the companys stock price. The Associated Press identified Thain, who received $83.1 million, as one of the best paid executives of S&P500 companies in 2007. In that year, Thain earned a total compensation of $83,785,021, which included a salary of $750,000, a cash bonus of $15,000,000, stock grant of $33,013,151. Thain suggested to the directors that he receive a bonus in 2008 of as much as $10 million, after the compensation committee at Merrill refused the request, Thain reportedly dropped it on December 8,2008. It was revealed on January 22,2009 that Thain spent $1, Thain subsequently apologized for his lapse in judgment, and reimbursed the company in full for the costs. Thain accelerated approximately $4 billion in payment to employees at Merrill just prior to the close of the deal with Bank of America. Bank of America was aware of the payment, as allowing the payment to go through was one of the conditions under the merger agreement. Speculation mounted that some of TARP fund was used for the bonus payment, on January 16,2009, Bank of America announced that Merrill suffered an unexpected loss of $15 billion for the fourth quarter of 2008. People close to Lewis say his relationship with Thain was strained by Merrills massive fourth quarter loss, Lewis himself faced criticism for rushing to buy Merrill for $28 billion after less than two days of due diligence. On January 22,2009, on CNBCs The Call, Charlie Gasparino said that Thain was going to meet Lewis later in the day, Gasparino added that Thains future at Bank of America was in doubt, although it was not certain whether he would be leaving. Gasparino then said that Thain spent $1.22 million to refurbish his office, the tension between Thain and Lewis had been building since mid-December and culminated on January 22,2009 when Lewis flew to New York to meet with Thain. After a 15-minute conversation between the two men, Thain agreed to resign, obamas press secretary Robert Gibbs also said taxpayer money shouldnt go to line the pockets of people whove gotten financial assistance
36.
Borsa Italiana
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Borsa Italiana S. p. A. based in Milan, is Italys stock exchange. It manages and organises domestic market, regulating procedures for admission and listing of companies and intermediaries, following exchange privatisation in 1997, the Company was established and became effective since January 2,1998. It is now a subsidiary of the London Stock Exchange Group plc since June 23,2007, in 2015, overall capitalisation for listed company on Borsa Italiana was worth €465Bln, representing % of Italian GDP. Borsa Italiana is also known as Piazza Affari, after the city square of Milan where its headquarters is located. Borsa Italiana is chaired by Andrea Sironi while Raffaele Jerusalmi serves as CEO, the two, moreover, are also both members of the Board of Directors of London Stock Exchange Group. The Borsa di commercio di Milano was established by Eugène de Beauharnais, viceroy of the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy, in March 2016, the London Stock Exchange Group announced it had agree to merge in an all-stock deal with Deutsche Borse. Borsa Italiana acts as a management firm operating with autonomy. It organises and manages the domestic market along with Italian. Among its leading tasks, Borsa Italiana supervises listed companies, defining rules for admission and listings, major trading markets for Borsa Italiana are, MTA, the leading equity market, which is devoted to mid and large-size companies
37.
Euroclear
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Euroclear is a Belgium-based financial services company that specializes in the settlement of securities transactions as well as the safekeeping and asset servicing of these securities. It was founded in 1968 as part of J. P. Morgan & Co. to settle trades on the then developing eurobond market, Euroclear settles domestic and international securities transactions, covering bonds, equities, derivatives and investment funds. Euroclear provides securities services to financial institutions located in more than 90 countries, Euroclear also owns EMXCo, the UKs leading provider of investment-fund order routing. Euroclear is the largest international central securities depository in the world, retail investors are able to have direct accounts in local CSDs, according to local laws, rules and procedures. The Euroclear System was operated by the Belgian branch of Morgan Guaranty Trust Company from its founding in December 1968 until the start of 2001, kidder Peabody had been the first major trading firm to tell the market that it would only deal with firms that cleared through Euroclear. Euroclears creation provoked a reaction in Luxembourg among firms which were competitors with Morgan, and this led to the launch of a competitor, Cedel, in September 1970. Euroclear acquired Sicovam in 2001, and Necigef, the Dutch CSD and it acquired Caisse Interprofessionnelle de Dépôts et de Virements de Titres, the Belgian CSD, in 2007. These local CSDs were renamed as Euroclear France, Euroclear Netherlands and Euroclear Belgium, Euroclear also took a 20% stake in the capital of LCH. Clearnet, the UK/French entity responsible for the clearing of Euronext, London Stock Exchange and other stock exchange transactions. The CSDs of Finland and Sweden, now operating as Euroclear Finland and Euroclear Sweden,3 years later, Russia mimicked the Euroclear system to create an exchange system with China. In May 2013, Euroclear and the US Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation offered access to each other’s vast inventory of collaterals, while the initial offering provides a two-way automatic transfer and retention of collaterals, it is intended to evolve as a single pool of depositories. In April 2014, Euroclear linked its system to the Central Latinoamericana de Valores to open Panama to international investors, in February 2015, Mexico opened up its corporate bonds to Euroclears trading platform, hoping it will facilitate and increase raising funds for its development programs. In March 2016, the bank of France linked with Euroclear for securities lending. On March 25th 2015, New York judge Thomas Griesa ordered Euroclear to stop processing payments of Argentinas debt bonds and this court injunction follows Argentinas decade-long dispute with its creditors. The next day, the bridge between Euroclear and Clearstream on those Argentine bonds were also shuttered until further notice. The intent of this injunction was to force Argentina to fully pay their creditors in order to gain access to its bond-selling program. In April 2012, Euroclear participated in the restructuring of the Greek debt by swapping 41 billion euros of Greek bonds, which represented about a third of the foreigner-held Greek debt. In 2005, a new Belgian holding company, Euroclear SA/NV, was created as the owner of all the technology and services supplied to each of the Euroclear CSDs. In January 2010, Tim Howell became CEO of Euroclear, replacing Pierre Francotte whose tenure lasted 10 years, on 1 January 2017, Lieve Mostrey was officially appointed CEO of Euroclear, replacing Tim Howell
38.
BNP Paribas
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BNP Paribas is an international banking group with a presence in 75 countries. It is listed on the First Market of Euronext Paris and is included in the CAC40 index, at 31 December 2016, net income attributable to equity holders was EUR7,702 million. BNP Paribas is one of the largest banks in the world, the retail bank also operates in the Mediterranean region and in the west of the United States. It was formed through the merger of Banque Nationale de Paris, the company is a component of the Euro Stoxx 50 stock market index. BNP Paribas has the highest brand value in France and its brand value increased EUR590 million to reach EUR14.7 billion in 2015. BNP Paribas was the 2nd leading bank in the zone in 2016. The Banque Nationale de Paris S. A. resulted from a merger of two French banks – Banque nationale pour le commerce et lindustrie and Comptoir national descompte de Paris – in 1966. The Banque de Paris et des Pays-Bas S. A. or Paribas, was formed from two investment banks based respectively in Paris and Amsterdam, in 1872, Les Pays-Bas is French for the Netherlands. In May 2000, BNP and Paribas merged to form BNP Paribas, on 7 March 1848, the French Provisional Government founded the Comptoir national descompte de Paris in response to the financial shock caused by the revolution of February 1848. The upheaval destroyed the old system, which was already struggling to provide sufficient capital to meet the demands of the railway boom. The CEP grew steadily in France and overseas, although in 1889 there was a crisis in which it was placed in receivership. The former banks headquarter and staff were used to create BNCI with fresh capital of 100 million francs, the bank initially grew rapidly through absorbing a number of regional banks that got into financial trouble. After the Second World War, it continued to grow steadily and it grew its retail business in France and its commercial business overseas in the French colonial empire. After the end of the Second World War, the French state decided to put banks, rené Pleven, then Minister of Finance, launched a massive reorganization of the banking industry. In 1966, the French government decided to merge Comptoir national descompte de Paris with Banque nationale pour le commerce et lindustrie to create one new bank called Banque Nationale de Paris. The bank was re-privatised in 1993 under the leadership of Michel Pébereau as part of a second Chirac governments privatization policy and it went on to develop a strong investment banking business both domestically in France and overseas. During the period 1872 to 1913, it was involved in raising funds for the French and it helped the French government raise funds during the First World War and raised further capital and expanded into investments into industrial companies during the Great Depression. It stagnated and lost assets during the Second World War, after World War II, it missed the nationalisation of the other French banks due to its status as an investment bank and managed to take advantage of that by expanding its operations overseas
39.
ABN AMRO
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ABN AMRO Bank N. V. is a Dutch bank with headquarters in Amsterdam. ABN AMRO Bank is the third-largest bank in the Netherlands, following the collapse of Fortis, who acquired the Dutch business, it was nationalized by the Dutch government along with Fortis Bank Nederland. It was relisted as public company again in 2015, the bank is a product of a long history of mergers and acquisitions that date to 1765. In 1991, Algemene Bank Nederland and AMRO Bank agreed to merge to create the original ABN AMRO, by 2007, ABN AMRO was the second-largest bank in the Netherlands and the eighth-largest in Europe by assets. At that time the magazine The Banker and Fortune Global 500 placed it 15th in the list of world’s biggest banks and it had operations in 63 countries, with over 110,000 employees. In October 2007, a consortium of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group, Fortis and Banco Santander, known as RFS Holdings B. V. acquired the bank, consequently, the bank was divided into three parts, each owned by one of the members of the consortium. However, RBS and Fortis soon ran into trouble, the large debt created to fund the takeover had depleted the banks reserves just as the financial crisis of 2007–2010 started. The operations owned by Santander, notably those in Italy and Brazil, were merged with Santander and this demerger created two separate organisations, ABN AMRO Bank N. V. and The Royal Bank of Scotland N. V. The remaining parts of the original ABN AMRO still owned by The Royal Bank of Scotland N. V. meanwhile, were renamed, the Dutch government has said that ABN AMRO would remain state-owned until at least 2014. On November 20,2015 the Dutch government publicly re-listed the company through an IPO, the NHM merged with the Twentsche Bank in 1964 to form Algemene Bank Nederland. In the same year, the Amsterdamsche Bank, established in 1871, merged with the Rotterdamsche Bank, established in 1873, in 1991, ABN and AMRO Bank agreed to merge to create ABN AMRO. Through these mergers and acquisitions, ABN AMRO gained a number of overseas companies and branches. From NHM, it owned a significant branch network in Asia, one of these, the Saudi Hollandi Bank was owned by the NHM Jeddah branch and in which ABN AMRO still had a 40% stake, caused questions in the Dutch parliament from the political Party for Freedom. In 1979, ABN expanded into North America with the acquisition of Chicago-based LaSalle National Bank, in 2005, Standard Federal became LaSalle Bank Midwest to unite the two components. ABN AMRO purchased The Chicago Corporation, an American securities and commodities trading and clearing corporation in fall 1995, other major acquisitions included the Brazilian bank Banco Real in 1998 and the Italian bank Antonveneta in 2006. It was also involved in the acquisition of the Dutch local government mortgage and building development organisation. ABN AMRO sold the Bouwfonds as a concern in 2006. ABN AMRO had come to a crossroads in early 2005, from 2000 until 2005, ABN AMROs stock price stagnated
40.
Banco BPI
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Banco Português de Investimento, English, Portuguese Investment Bank) is a major privately owned bank in Portugal. The banks shares are listed in the Euronext Lisbons PSI-20 stock index and it runs the banking business with companies, institutional and private clients. As Sociedade Portuguesa de Investimentos it was founded in 1981 by Artur Santos Silva and it is the third largest private Portuguese financial group with assets of €112.9 billion. Chairman and CEO is Fernando Ulrich, the bank is headquartered in Porto. PSI-20 The commercial banking group Banco BPI has more than 1.4 million customers, individuals, businesses, through its multi-channel distribution network with 674 branches,30 investment centers and branches, the bank specializes in home loans through a network of outside companies. The bank is active in Portugal and Spain, Angola. In Angola, BPI is the leader in corporate banking. In Mozambique, the BPI maintains a 30 percent stake in the bank BCI Fomento, on 25 October 2007, BPI offered a merger proposal with Millennium BCP, the largest private bank of Portugal. However, the board of BCP rejected the proposal, the logo represents an orange blossom. When it was launched, it was the most expensive logo of a Portuguese company
41.
AEX Index
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The AEX index, derived from Amsterdam Exchange index, is a stock market index composed of Dutch companies that trade on Euronext Amsterdam, formerly known as the Amsterdam Stock Exchange. Started in 1983, the index is composed of a maximum of 25 of the most actively traded securities on the exchange and it is one of the main national indices of the stock exchange group Euronext alongside Brussels BEL20, Pariss CAC40 and Lisbons PSI-20. The AEX started from a level of 100 index points on 3 January 1983. The indexs peak to date is 703.18, reached on 5 September 2000 at the height of the dot-com bubble, the index value more than halved over the following three years before recovering in line with most global financial markets. The AEX index enjoyed its second largest one-day loss on September 29,2008, the decade between 1998 and 2008 has been bad for the AEX index, as it has been the worst performing stock index except for the OMX Iceland 15. The preceding years were a lot compared to the rest of the world. As of 2011, the AEX index composition is reviewed four times a year - a full review in March and interim quarterly reviews in June. Any changes made as a result of the reviews take effect on the third Friday of the month, previously reviews were held in March and September only. Prior to 2008, index changes were made annually in March. At the main March review date, the 23 companies listed on Euronext Amsterdams regulated market with the highest share turnover over the year are admitted to the index. Of the companies ranked between 24th and 27th, a further two are selected with preference given to existing constituents of the index, companies which have fewer than 25% of shares considered free float on Euronext Amsterdam are, however, ineligible for inclusion. Unlike some other European benchmark equity indices, if a company has more than one class of shares traded on the exchange, if a company or companies are removed from the index due to delisting, acquisition or another reason, no replacements are made until the next review date. If vacancies are to be filled, the highest-ranking non-AEX companies are selected to join the index, the AEX is a capitalization-weighted index. At each main annual review, the weightings of companies in the index are capped at 15%. The index weights are calculated with respect to the prices of the relevant companies on March 1. At the interim reviews, weightings after adjustment are left as close as possible to those of the day and are not re-capped. The index comprises a basket of shares, the numbers of which are based on the constituent weights, the index is composed of the following listings as of 1 April 2017. AMX index, the index of the next 25 largest funds on Euronext Amsterdam
