The FINANCIAL — NASDAQ OMX Vilnius, part of the NASDAQ OMX Group (NASDAQ: NDAQ) on July 26 announces that it has decided to later this year start using the euro as the trading and clearing currency for shares on its regulated market.
This follows Lithuanian customer feedback and the plan is to implement the new trading and clearing currency this year, given market participant readiness.
“Changing the trading and clearing currency on NASDAQ OMX Vilnius to the euro is a major milestone in developing our financial market and will provide easy and effective access to Lithuanian securities. The introduction of the euro will decrease currency conversion costs for foreign investors, local pension and investment funds as well as most of the private Lithuanian investors who are trading on multiple markets. We also expect to attract more capital into the market and boost liquidity, which benefits all investors”, said Arminta Saladziene, Chairman of the NASDAQ OMX Vilnius Management Board.
Trading in shares listed on NASDAQ OMX Vilnius will in the future only be conducted in euro. The Central Securities Depository of Lithuania will provide settlement of transactions in euro via the TARGET2 system.
Furthermore, the European Parliament has supported the neighboring country Estonia’s application to join the euro area and thus Estonia will adopt the euro from January 1, 2011. Since one third of the stock exchange transactions within the Baltic region are cross-border, the Baltic markets will be more homogeneous with NASDAQ OMX Vilnius using the same trading and clearing currency. The third Baltic stock exchange, NASDAQ OMX Riga, will also move along with its plan to introduce trading in the euro on its regulated equities market.
Considering the above and with the input from market consultations, the NASDAQ OMX Baltic exchanges have decided to discontinue previously announced initiative regarding single Baltic marketplace for trading Baltic equities in euro.
