CUSTODY
“I should mention that the performance of this market, compared to others over the last few years, has been tremendous, especially now. This leads to instances when the market in fact does not follow the trend of other European markets.”
custodians feel that they have reached an all time low threshold and therefore further movement seems unlikely. However, the market is not sitting still as Andreas Sotiropoulos explained: "The associated costs on the trading side are being scrutinised by the Hellenic Exchanges Group to see if they are comparable with other major markets. Are they similar, higher, lower? This has to be done in order to ensure that the total cost the investor sees remains attractive. This is important in terms of current and future investment in to the market. Therefore, when you consider the cost attached to the custodial element together with the relevant trading costs, the total needs to be competitive when compared to other European markets. In this
realise that perhaps everything we read is not necessarily fact. Looking back, as we have done over the last couple of years, Greece like most developed markets has had certain challenges to overcome, with some calling in to question its status as a developed market. However, let’s first, putting market dynamics to one side, understand that the Olympic effort was indeed a success. Second, whilst certain procedural elements may have been reminiscent of an age gone by, reforms have been implemented and steps have been taken to bring Greece in line with its counterparts. The results so far have been impressive. However, this appears to be just the tip of the iceberg as Theofilos Mitsakos explained: "The potential for Greece to become a regional hub has been discussed for some years now,
“As long as there is market share, and potential clients to compete for, there will always be institutions who will want a percentage of this business.”
way the Greek market will continue to be attractive to current and future investors." Consolidation On the subject of consolidation, whereas certain market analysts feel that there will be considerable consolidation and eradication of custodians over the next decade, Dimitri Vassiliou was not in agreement: "As long as there is market share, and potential clients to compete for, there will always be institutions who will want a percentage of this business." Greek custody- 2006 and beyond So, when we consider, digest and contemplate the information gathered from a cross-section of highly qualified individuals who sleep, eat and breathe this business we call custody, we start to
86
but what’s changed is that things are starting to materialise. Developments with Cyprus start soon, and in fact the president of the stock exchange has gone to Romania in order to explore the potential for something similar. This has been backed up by the CMC’s cooperation agreements with Israel and Serbia. Countries like Bulgaria are also looking in to the possibility of using the same platform." Christos Nikolaidis finished with a rallying cry: "When I look back six years ago, before the dematerialisation of Greek equities took place, and then consider what we’ve discussed today, Greece becoming a regional hub, I have to say that the growth of the Greek capital market has been tremendous. We have implemented, very successfully, dematerialisation, derivatives and an entire infrastructure for the protection of investors. I think that everything that’s taken place over the last six years will be doubled in the future."
VOLUME 4