In order to trade on all three Baltic markets, the brokerage firm needs to be a member of all three exchanges. However, through a single application for NASDAQ OMX Baltic Membership and joint review and approval procedure, the Baltic exchanges strive to make the cross-border application procedure as smooth as possible.
Membership of all three stock exchanges is applied through one of the three Baltic exchanges in Tallinn, Riga or Vilnius. Please choose the Membership form depending on the stock exchange you apply through:
Membership Agreement needs to be signed with each Baltic stock exchange you apply Membership for:
Due to legislative requirements, relevant approval from each securities market supervisor needs to be obtained. However, in line with EU practices, for an investment firm already operating in any of the EU countries the process generally includes only notifying its home Financial Supervisory Authority (FSA)*. In case a company is not yet active in EU, it must first be approved by the respective FSAs in Estonia, Latvia or Lithuania.
Upon notifying the FSA, the applicant must sign a membership agreement and submit a membership application form to any of the Baltic exchanges. Simplified membership application procedure is applied for companies that are already members of any exchange of the NASDAQ OMX. The membership application form has to be accompanied by the following:
- List of company contacts
- Copy of the relevant authorizations to provide investment services in the relevant jurisdictions
- List of brokers authorized for trading in the Exchange(s)
- General settlement information form
- Confirmation of membership of relevant securities depository(ies) or copy of the signed settlement agreement
Exchange traders having the right to trade on any of the NASDAQ OMX exchanges do not need to pass a separate examination in order to trade on the Baltic exchanges.
Application for member firms who are not present at any NASDAQ OMX exchanges has to be accompanied by the following:
- List of company contacts
- Copy of the relevant authorizations to provide investment services in the relevant jurisdictions
- Copy of the company’s Articles of Association
- Copy of the company’s Certificate of Incorporation
- Financial statements of the last year
- List of brokers authorized for trading in the Exchange(s)
- General settlement information form
- Confirmation of membership of relevant securities depository(ies) or copy of the signed settlement agreement
Since all NASDAQ OMX Nordic exchanges share the same trading system, members of these exchanges avoid additional technical costs and installments when trading on the Baltic exchanges, and there are no extra fees payable to the Baltic exchanges for the use of technical infrastructure.
Clearing and settlement of transactions made on the Baltic exchanges take place in the local CSDs. A remote member (foreign-based member firm) has two alternatives for clearing and settlement of transactions concluded on the Baltic exchange(s); it can either use its own back office and conclude respective agreements with the Estonian CSD, Latvian CSD or Lithuanian CSD, or it can outsource its clearing and settlement services. There are several service providers on the market.
The processing of the membership application takes about 1-2 weeks if all required information is present. After approval of the membership application and required appendices by the exchange’s management board, the membership is granted and the new member can start trading.
*Notification is not required if a brokerage firm does not intend to provide investment services in the country.
