Dr Joseph Lee held a seminar on stock exchange interconnections at the British Academy

Major stock exchanges including Euronext, Deutsche Börse, SIX Swiss, and Taiwan Stock Exchange all attended the seminar and delivered talks on the developments of stock exchange interconnections. EuroCCP - one of the largest clearing houses in Europe- discussed ‘interoperability’ and ‘open access’ in the securities clearing market. The Federation of European Securities Exchanges and the European Central Securities Depositories Association (ECSDA) also provided some insight on trading and post-trade development in the EU context. The European Issuers discussed the outcome of a survey on the listed companies’ perceptions of the current environment of the securities listing market. The Financial Conduct Authority and the DG Justice and Consumer Protection of the EU considered the issues from a regulatory standpoint. European and Asian law firms including Tsar & Tsai, Astumi & Sakai, Ashurst LLP, and Corwell & Moring LLP also provided a number of case studies on interconnections. Researchers from the Exeter Law School presented a paper on capital market developments in Kazakhstan and the international cooperation KASE has with other major exchanges such as the London Stock Exchange (LSE). The Hon. Mr Justice Blair, Judge in Charge of the Commercial Court, stated at the opening of the seminar: ‘As global financial markets become increasingly interconnected, stock exchanges have followed the trend by connecting their operations… [M]arket interconnections promote the free flow of capital, goods, services, and human capital across national borders, so exchange interconnections also increase the flow of securities and financial services.’ Dr Lee will continue working with academics from the CNRS in France, Bocconi in Italy, Masaryk in the Czech Republic, and the University of London as well as other non-academic partners. He will hold another seminar on stock exchange interconnections at National Taiwan University in Taipei in October this year. This second seminar will place more emphasis on interconnections in the Asian scene – investigating interconnections projects such as the Hong Kong-Shanghai Stock Connect, the SGX-TWSE connect, the KRX- Eurex cooperation, and the Euronext – SSE development.