TIRANA STOCK EXCHANGE
The final license to operate as an organized
securities market, obtained 1 July 2003, marks
the main milestone in the Tirana Stock
Exchange’s long history of continuous efforts
toward molding a fully operating securities
market in Albania.
Dr. Elvin Meka
General Director
The TSE has
endeavored to get closer
to Albanian private
sector businesses by
building up interest and
increasingly shaping its
own image.
The Tirana Stock Exchange (TSE) has
endeavored to get closer to Albanian private
sector businesses by building up interest and
increasingly shaping its own image as an
important and long-term partner for those
businesses who need to raise necessary funds
to finance and expand economic activity. For
the first time ever, we have developed the
membership concept by having three banks
and a private brokerage firm as the first
members of the TSE.
Being quite confident about the unique role the
TSE will and must play, we have worked
persistently and consistently to make all private
and government institutions aware of the
possibilities that the securities market and the
TSE may offer, as well as to obtain tradable
instruments, which in turn, will channel the
funds of the investing public and effectively
reallocate the resources. All efforts make
valuable contributions in the acceleration and
conclusion of our economic transition.
HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT
The Securities Act was approved by the
Parliament on 1 March 1996, paving the way for
the establishment of the Albanian Securities
Commission (ASC) on 16 April and the Tirana
Stock Exchange (TSE) on 2 May 1996. Once
the law was approved, the necessary rules and
regulations of the ASC and the TSE were
prepared and adopted.
The TSE opened officially on 2 May 1996, as
the first exchange in Albania’a financial history.
The TSE was originally established as a
department of the Bank of Albania with the goal
of spinning off as a separate institution after a
transition period of several years. At the
beginning, trading sessions were held every
Monday and Thursday. By October 1997, the
sessions were increased to every business day,
and 3- and 6-month maturity T-bills were added
to the existing instruments traded. Primary
auctions for T-bills were conducted by the TSE
until 1 August 1998.
The major change in the legal framework of the
TSE was the approval by the Parliament of
some revisions to the actual Securities Law,
which came into force in March 2001. Under
these new changes, the Ministry of Finance
It is our belief that 2004 will be a decisive year
for further development of the TSE. Economic
and financial reforms, integrated with the
governmental program for privatization,
financial transparency, reduction of the informal
(gray market) economy, and a thriving business
environment, will become a true reality only
through a full-fledged functioning securities
market.
FUTURE OUTLOOK
took all practical steps to develop and
institutionalize the capital market in Albania
during 2002. In this way, the TSE was finally
established for the first time, in March 2002, as
an independent institution (joint-stock
company), with the sole owner the Ministry of
Finance.
The TSE obtained its full license on 1 July 2003,
thus becoming the first licensed securities
market in Albania. During 2003, for the first time
in its short history of development, the TSE
admitted four full members.
The major objectives of the TSE for the
coming year are:
• ongoing cooperation with respective
government structures and a continued
commitment to privatize strategic and non-
strategic state-owned enterprises through
initial public offerings;
• promotion and provision of the facilities for
primary auctions of T-bills and T-bonds;
• attraction of domestic companies as well as
obtaining the first securities listing on the TSE;
• improvement of information technology,
including the identification and implementation
of the electronic system for the trading of
securities; and
• continuing the marketing campaign to
promote the TSE as a securities market along
with public education and information
campaigns geared toward investors, potential
financial intermediaries and potential issuers
of securities.
FEDERATION OF EURO-ASIAN STOCK EXCHANGES YEARBOOK 2003/2004
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