Mexican Stock Exchange

From 1880 to 1900, Plateros and Cadena streets in the historic center of Mexico City were home to recurring meetings in which brokers and businessmen purchased and sold all kinds of commodities as well as stocks in public offerings. Afterwards, exclusive groups of shareholders and issuing company representatives would gather to negotiate behind closed doors in different places around the city.

Madero Avenue, home of the first stock exchange in Mexico, is today a pedestrian mall.

In 1894, Manuel Algara, Camilo Arriaga, and Manuel Nicolín pushed, among the most distinguished brokers of the time, the idea of a normative and institutionalised system to trade securities. With the increased backing and widespread support for his ideas, the Bolsa Nacional (National Stock Exchange) was founded on 31 October 1894 at 9 Plateros Street, later renamed Madero Street. Less than a year later, another group of brokers, led by Francisco A. Llerena and Luis G. Necochea, formed a society named Bolsa de México (Stock Exchange of Mexico), and registered as a competing establishment on 14 June 1895. Because of coinciding objectives and links between members of the two institutions, leaders began discussing a union between them. On 3 September 1895, the merger was finalised, keeping the name Bolsa de México, and the administrative offices at the Plateros Street address. The company was officially inaugurated on 21 October 1895.

By the start of the following year, Bolsa de México had three public issuing companies and eight private ones, among them, the Bank of Mexico, the National Bank of Mexico, and the Banco de Londres y México (later acquired by Banco Santander). On 1 March 1933, the Congress of Mexico passed and President Abelardo L. Rodríguez signed into law the Regulatory Decree of the General Law of Credit Institutions and Auxiliary Organisations, normalising the exchange of securities and the stock market in Mexico.

President Abelardo L. Rodríguez

Because of the legal reforms of the time, and the concession authorised by Congress on 28 October 1933, which for the first time included stock exchanges, the charter and bylaws of the Bolsa de Valores de México, S.A. (Stock Exchange of Mexico) were approved, and on 5 September, the institution was incorporated. That same year, the National Securities Commission, later renamed National Banking and Securities Commission, was established to supervise the Bolsa de Valores de México.

Because of substantial industrial and commercial growth in Mexico mid-century, owing to the rise in the creation of maquiladoras in northern Mexico, as well as the accumulation of capital and the constant creation of new businesses at the time, the Monterrey Stock Exchange was established, and it grew to serve the entire North of the country, reaching over 100 listings.[6] Soon after, businesses in Guadalajara started organising a third stock exchange, and in 1960, the Occidental Stock Exchange was established to serve the West coast of Mexico.

The National Stock Exchange is born.

Because of low performance in the Guadalajara and Monterrey stock exchanges, however, Congress passed in 1975 the Securities' Market Law, which prompted the Bolsa de Valores de México to change its name to Bolsa Mexicana de Valores (Mexican Stock Exchange) and merge the other two exchange houses into it, creating thus the single entity that remains to this day the only stock exchange in Mexico.

On 19 April 1990, the Centro Bursátil was finished on Paseo de la Reforma, turning the Stock Exchange Centre into the heart of the financial district of Mexico City. Five years later, the BMV completely modernised the centre, introducing a completely electronic system (BMV-SENTRA) which was phased into the workings of the exchange, becoming fully operational by 1999.

In 2001, Citigroup became the first foreign company to begin trading in the BMV, opening the door to many new companies to do the same, especially from Central and South America. The same year, the Securities' Market Law was reformed according to the demutualisation of BMV. The following year, the Corporativo Mexicano del Mercado de Valores, S.A. de C.V. was constituted to manage the hiring of personnel, and administration of the Stock Exchange and other financial institutions within the centre.

The Stock Exchange Centre in 2012

In 2003, the global market was made available through the BMV, allowing national investors access to foreign securities from within the country. In 2006, the Mexican securities market was opened to foreigners through the MexDer system, allowing them operation from anywhere in the world. In October of the same year, four ETFs (exchange-traded funds) over indexes of the stock exchange itself were listed, placing BMV in the first place in Latin America in terms of ETFs listed over own indexes, and as the leading stock exchange in terms of total ETFs.

In 2010, the BMV signed an alliance with the world's largest derivatives exchange, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, putting Mexican derivatives within reach of international investors.

The Mexican Stock Exchange, BMV, announced its first trade made as part of the Latin American Integrated Market (MILA by its Spanish initials) on 2 December 2014.[7] The trade on MIILA was a $1,415 purchase of 200 shares in Chilean retailer Falabella, executed by GBM Mexico through GBM Chile.[7] With the entry of Mexico into MILA, the integrated stock market now counts 798 issuers among the four countries, making it the biggest market by number of listed companies in Latin America, and the biggest in terms of market capitalization, according to the World Federation of Exchanges.[7] The joint capitalization of the four bourses tops US$1.25 trillion, making it larger than the US$1.22 trillion BM&F Bovespa.[8] The move comes largely as step in the integration efforts between Mexico, Chile, Colombia, and Peru, as members of the Pacific Alliance.