FEDERATION OF EURO-ASIAN STOCK EXCHANGES SEMI ANNUAL REPORT OCTOBER 2008FEDERATION OF EURO-ASIAN STOCK EXCHANGESHISTORYThe Federation of Euro-Asian Stock Exchanges(<strong>FEAS</strong>) was established with its Head Quartersin Istanbul on 16 May 1995, with 12 foundingmembers and has grown to 32 members and 8affiliate members in 29 countries as a not-forprofitorganization. Membership in theFederation is open to security exchanges inEurope and Asia and Affiliate Membership isopen to the Clearing and Settlement affiliatesand Central Depositories of Member StockExchanges. Until May, 2009 the position ofPresident and Vice President will be held bythe Istanbul and Egyptian Stock Exchange,respectively. The Governing Body of <strong>FEAS</strong> isthe General Assembly, comprised of all 32members plus 8 affiliate members, whichmeets once annually in a member country todiscuss major issues for operations of <strong>FEAS</strong> inorder to decide upon changes in Charter andby laws its annual budget and to approve itsactivity and Financial Reports as well as theIndependent Auditors’ Report. The ExecutiveCommittee, made up of 12 members, isresponsible for the development of Federationpolicies, making major administrativedecisions, as mandated by the GeneralAssembly, approving the content and scope oftasks assigned to the Working Committee, andmaking recommendations to the GeneralAssembly.PHILOSOPHYMISSION STATEMENTThe mission of <strong>FEAS</strong> is to create fair, efficientand transparent market environments, with littleor no barriers to trade, within the operatingregions of <strong>FEAS</strong> members. In order to facilitatethe objectives of <strong>FEAS</strong>, members work towardthe harmonization of rules and regulations andadoption of new technology, for trading andsettlement. These actions further promote thedevelopment of the member markets andprovide cross border trading opportunities forsecurities issued within <strong>FEAS</strong> membercountries.5-YEAR STRATEGIC PLANIn accordance with the Mission Statement, 5-year Strategic Objectives are set up tosystematically approach compliance with thelong-term mission of the Federation. Theseobjectives are:Objective I:Promote good ‘corporate governance’ for listedcompanies as indicated in the joint<strong>FEAS</strong>/OECD “Best Practices for theDevelopment of Stock Exchanges in TransitionEconomies” guide. Facilitate timely disclosureof material events to achieve transparencythrough effective dissemination of information.Objective II:Achieve convergence among <strong>FEAS</strong> membersin their:• listing requirements,• trading rules and software;• the settlement cycle.Objective III:Promote mechanisms for reliable, transparentand uninterrupted securities trading andsettlement.Objective IV:Create greater awareness and visibility for theregion’s securities and investmentopportunities.Objective V:Help promote the listing of ‘investment grade’securities in the respective Home markets ofthe Region.Objective VI:Help create linkages among the region’s:• intermediaries,• data providers,• settlement and custody institutions,• stock exchanges; and also• make efforts to initiate cooperation amongRegion’s Securities Commissions.Objective VII:Promote and encourage research and trainingfor <strong>FEAS</strong> members and their personnel.DEVELOPMENT AND MARKETINGOF THE REGIONThis section highlights the activities of the TaskForces during the first half of 2008 whileproviding a summary of continuing programsinto the second half of 2008.BILATERAL INITIATIVES PROGRAMThe Federation supports a fully funded Bilateralvisits Program to facilitate, on a bilateral basis,the reciprocate visits of personnel of <strong>FEAS</strong>members with each other for the purpose ofexchange of, information and experience onspecific topics of interest to both parties.Almost all Federation members have nowparticipated in this program, which is plannedto continue during 2009. During 2008 year todate, 4 bilateral visits were approved and 2have been completed, one postponed and thelast one will be completed in October.WORKING COMMITTEEDuring the Working Committee Meeting thatwas held in Baku, Azerbaijan on May 14-15h2008 reports were given by the task forcesincluding Media, Regional Indices, MarketPrinciples and Corporate Governance, AffiliateMembers, <strong>FEAS</strong> Data Center. Updates werealso provided by the Secretariat on the statusof the Semi Annual Report, Revenue andExpense Analysis, Bilateral visits, DraftFinancial Report and the 2008 Calendar ofEvents. Second Working Committee meetingwill be held in November in Abu Dhabi, prior tothe General Assembly.CONTACT INFORMATIONContact Name Mr. Aril Seren, Secretary General E-mail secretariat@feas.org Website www.feas.org<strong>FEAS</strong> regionPAGE 4
FEDERATION OF EURO-ASIAN STOCK EXCHANGES SEMI ANNUAL REPORT OCTOBER 2008FEDERATION OF EURO-ASIAN STOCK EXCHANGESTask ForcesIn 2005, decision was taken to combine thetwo working committees into one and to form,12 Task Forces to carry out the mandatesgiven by the Executive Committee. Since then,some Task Forces have completed the tasksassigned to them and some new task forceswere formed, the existing Task Forces arelisted below:Task Force 0404 – Media (Led by MuscatSecurities Market)Following the Media Relations Task Forcemeeting held on 15 May 2008 in Baku, the TFparticipants agreed on the following issues:1. A Media Gathering will take place prior toGeneral Assembly meetings2. Journalists from the member countries willbe invited to be present at the <strong>FEAS</strong> meetingsto cover the events in local media. The aim isto increase awareness for the Federation andthe hosting exchange.3. A workshop for Media Relations took placein July 2008, in Istanbul.4. Muscat Securities Market Forum will beheld in Muscat in December 20085. A <strong>FEAS</strong> movie will be produced by TehranSE and a draft will be readied by the GA.6. The Task Force will continue with its work inaccordance with the 2008 Activity Plan asapproved at the General Assembly Meeting inBelgrade.7. One of the Arabic Stock Exchanges wouldarrange a training course for journalists inArabic language and other countries willfollow along the same format to organizetraining courses in their own languages ( forRussian, English etc.)8. At the next GA, the agenda for the MediaTask Force for 2009 will be determined.Task Force 0406 – Regional Indices (Ledby Tehran Stock Exchange)As part of the Marketing plan for the <strong>FEAS</strong>Region, Dow Jones came forward to calculate<strong>FEAS</strong> indexes and the Task Force, togetherwith the Secretariat, has conducted a surveyamong <strong>FEAS</strong> members for the creation of theindex and the negotiations with Dow JonesIndices on the Index Agreement. Followingapproval by General Assembly, The IndexAgreement was signed in October, 2007 withDow Jones which will calculate a benchmarkindex including a large number of stocks fromthe Region, with the expected date of alaunching in 2008-2009.Task Force 0412 – Corporate Governance(Led by Karachi Stock Exchange)All members of <strong>FEAS</strong>, place a strongemphasis on good Corporate Governance. Atask force was created to provide a vehicle formembers to update the information containedin the Corporate Governance section of theRule Book and to inform all member stockexchanges of international regulations andpractices regarding corporate governancewhich are gaining importance for a bettervaluation of stocks. At the same time, theissue of good Corporate Governance forStock Exchanges has become important asStock Exchanges are changing from MutualEntities into For-profit Companies. TheBucharest Stock Exchange hosted aconference on Corporate Governance in Juneof 2005 and <strong>FEAS</strong> jointly hosted roundtablemeetings with the OECD on February 15-16,2006. The Belgrade Stock Exchange, inpartnership with the IFC, published aCorporate Governance Manual in 2007.<strong>FEAS</strong> Secretariat has conducted a survey anda glossary and the draft was discussed duringthe Working Committee in Baku. Half of themembers have filled out the survey and thereport will be discussed at the upcomingGeneral Assembly.Task Force 0501 – Affiliate Members(Led by ISE Settlement and Custody Bank,Takasbank)Affiliate members have designed and are inthe process of implementing both new webpages on the <strong>FEAS</strong> web site and new pagesin the <strong>FEAS</strong> Semi Annual Report. The thirdmeeting of the Affiliate Task Force was heldon September 6, 2007 in Belgrade.It has been decided to prepare another leafleton corporate e governance, covering theexisting international recommendations andbest practices related to CorporateGovernance inCSD’s.Affiliate Members Task Force will continue tocontribute to the mission of the <strong>FEAS</strong> forfuture development and promotion of theSecurities Market settlement and custodysystems.Task Force 0502 – FDC Implementation(Led by Istanbul Stock Exchange)The database has been upgraded to allowmore space to add additional <strong>FEAS</strong>members. The FDC will be instrumental in thedevelopment of the <strong>FEAS</strong> Index so this year agroup from <strong>FEAS</strong> and the Istanbul SE willtravel to member exchanges in order toimplement the <strong>FEAS</strong> Data Center at theirrespective exchanges. The changes in FDCformat that will become necessary with thenew requirements for <strong>FEAS</strong> index are currentlybeing addressed and the new format isexpected to be implemented at memberexchanges starting this year.Task Force 0504 – Research andDevelopment (Led by the Istanbul StockExchange)This task force will bring members together towork on joint research projects of generalinterest for <strong>FEAS</strong> members that willconsolidate their experiences and knowledge.This Task Force has recently conducted astudy on Initial Public Offerings, and it waspresented as a report at <strong>FEAS</strong> GeneralAssembly in Belgrade. The study will continueto investigate the impact of IPO, PrivatizationPrograms and the Investment base ofMember Exchanges.Training Center ProjectIn accordance with the decision taken at thelast <strong>FEAS</strong> General Assembly, <strong>FEAS</strong>established a <strong>FEAS</strong> Training Center in Istanbulat the Istanbul SE <strong>FEAS</strong> Headquartersfacilities. It is designed to provide memberswith educational opportunities and trainingprograms for their personnel. The primarygoal of the <strong>FEAS</strong> Training Center, with the<strong>FEAS</strong> Training Program, is to provide <strong>FEAS</strong>Members with a wide range of educationaland training options with emphasis onExchange management whereby theExchange Personnel will have the opportunityto receive training in line with their interestsand motives. Other target groups for trainingare Companies and Media and the Personnelof listed. In line with the Media Task forcegoal, the Media members and the personnelof the stock exchanges will benefit from MediaTrainings in Muscat and in Istanbul.In November 2007, MSM Stock Exchangeheld a gathering in Muscat where all topics onMedia have been discussed and exhibited.In July 7-8, 2008 the <strong>FEAS</strong> Media RelationsWorkshop for <strong>FEAS</strong> members was held inIstanbul where they have discussed ‘’How tointeract with Media during times of crises’’.Several members and speakers from Turkishand Egyptian Media talked about the currentglobal crisis and its effects.2008 Mandates:• Publication and Distribution of the SemiAnnual Report in March/April andSeptember/October• Hold a conference with Issuers, Brokers &Mutual Fund Managers in conjunction with thelaunching of the <strong>FEAS</strong> Index• Continuation of the ongoing RevenueAnalysis from 2003 through 2007.• 2008 Spring Working Committee Meeting tobe hosted by Baku Stock Exchange.• The 14th Annual General Assembly Meetingand 17th Executive Committee Meeting totake place in Abu Dhabi, UAE to be hosted byADX, in November, 2008.• The Serial Seminars for members of themedia to continue.PAGE 5