Borsa Italiana

The Borsa Italiana S.p.A., based in Milan, is Italy's main stock exchange. It was privatised in 1997 and is a part of the London Stock Exchange Group plc since 2007. In 2005, the companies listed on the Borsa were worth US$890 billion. It is also informally known as Piazza Affari ("Business Square"), after the city square of Milan where its headquarters (the Palazzo Mezzanotte building) is located.

History

The Borsa di commercio di Milano (Milan Stock Exchange) was established by Eugène de Beauharnais, viceroy of the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy, through decrees dated 16 January and 6 February 1808. It operated under public ownership until 1998.

It was sold to a consortium of banks, and operated under a joint-stock holding company between 2 January 1998 and on 1 October 2007, when it was merged with the London Stock Exchange in an all-share takeover.

Operations

Borsa Italiana has managing responsibility for Italy's derivatives markets (IDEM and MIF) and its fixed income market (MOT). On the MOT (Electronic Government Bond and Securities Market), buy and sell contracts are traded on government securities and nonconvertible bonds; the EuroMOT is the Euro-Bond Electronic Market that trades Eurobonds, bonds from foreign issuers and asset-backed securities.