Platform is the starting point, ASE Chairman says

“The common CSE – ASE platform is the starting point for wider collaborations in the region. Our aim is to improve our infrastructure and develop a stock market in the region that will be able to attract the international investing public. This agreement will be the starting point for our expansion in the markets of the SE Europe in order to achieve our goal for a single market in the wider geographical area”, Athens Stock Exchange Chairman, Spyros Kapralos told on his interview to StockWatch on Thursday. Mr. Kapralos said that the common platform will lead to the drop in the operating cost of the two stock exchanges with the improvement of the economies of scales and will reduce the access cost for the investors.

For the small markets such as Cyprus, Mr. Kapralos emphasized that autonomy should not be an aim in itself, especially nowadays that all stock exchanges proceed to privatizations. “The small stock exchanges must seek collaborations in order to reduce the cost of use of their infrastructures and attract international institutional investors”, he stated.

As for the crisis of reliability in the Athens Stock Exchange, the ASE Chairman said that everybody is making efforts to restore reliability. “But this can be achieved only if all organizations move towards the same direction. Each one of us must take his responsibility in order to restore credibility”, he concluded.