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The Malta Stock Exchange was established by an Act of Parliament in 1990, as a “body corporate having a distinct legal personality” with the “sole and exclusive authority in Malta to provide facilities for the purchase and sale of quoted securities”.
The Council of the Malta Stock Exchange was appointed on 24 January 1991, with various powers and functions, which are spelt out in the MSE Act 1990, in the Statute and in the Bye-Laws.
The first trading session was held on 8 January 1992. At that time a manual “call-over” system was used. This system remained in use until 1996 when the changeover to screen-based trading took place. Electronic trading was introduced in July 1996, using an “order-driven” system. Every stockbroker inputs all orders for any given security into the trading system and the opening price is calculated according to the supply and demand in a particular security. The electronic system made continuous trading possible.
The MSE offers a fair and efficient market place where securities can be traded in an orderly and regulated manner. The MSE performs the following functions:
Trading: Trading of listed securities takes place from the offices of all licensed stockbrokers. Trading is held on a daily basis between 10.15 a.m and 12.00 p.m. Previously this took place at the Exchange premises under the guidance of a Market Official. Dealing on the Exchange is conducted electronically and the matching which is “order driven”. This is fully integrated with the Clearing and Settlement System (CSS) and the Central Securities Depository (CSD).
Clearing and Settlement: The Exchange is responsible for clearing and settlement of deals which have been matched during trading sessions. At present all transactions have to be settled on a T+3 basis.
Registration: The MSE is dematerialized and maintains the registers of all listed securities through a Central Securities Depository (CSD). Following trading, the register of holders in any particular security which has been traded will be updated to reflect the transfer of ownership between the seller and the buyer. Registration Advices showing the movements effected are sent to all the underlying clients of each particular transaction. The CSD also provides other services to listed companies such as processing and printing of dividend and interest cheques, as well as various statistical reports to Company Secretaries.
In 1999, the MSE attained full membership status of the Federation of Stock Exchanges (FIBV). The MSE has also been formally invited to sit on the select Working Committee of the Federation. Furthermore, the MSE has been a full member of IOSCO since 1992 and is also an Associate Member of the Federation of European Securities Exchanges (FESE).
For further information visit the website of the Malta Stock Exchange.
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