With offices in Bogotá, Cali and Medellín, the Colombia Stock Exchange, or Bolsa de Valores de Colombia (BVC) came about as the result of a merger in 2001 of the three exchanges in Colombia at the time – Bolsa de Bogota, Bolsa de Medellín and Bolsa de Occidente. Today the BVC is registered as a stock exchange promoting the development and market growth of the country’s financial assets by various means including facilitating the financing of commercial, industrial and service industries. With dedicated and competent staff as its backbone, the BVC strives to effectively meet the needs of its customers by providing a technological platform that is safe, reliable and user-friendly.
The BVC’s strategic processes include a thorough analysis of a business, looking at both its strengths and weaknesses and assessing potential risks. Its operational processes provide salient information to clients and stakeholders through a hi-tech environment, encompassing trading, compliance, compensation and guarantees. Through its process control, the BVC ensures compliance to both internal and external standards, as well as creating procedures and policies to ensure effective risk management and transparency. The BVC is regulated by an independent entity, the CSE, which is responsible for overseeing the ethical operation of all aspects of the exchange.
The idea of a stock exchange for Colombia was first formulated in the early 20th century, with initiatives in both Medellín and Bogota failing to achieve its goals. It was to be more than twenty years before a group of government officials, together with a number of local and foreign entrepreneurs, formed the Bolsa de Bogota in 1928, using the regulations drawn up by former Minister of Economy, Jorge Soto del Corral. The first board of trustees was elected on May 6, 1929. During that eventful year, the first seventeen traders were assigned, with twenty-five organizations and corporations from various market sectors registering their shares. Colombia’s second exchange was created in Medellín in the 1950s and the third in Cali in the mid 1970s. As was mentioned at the outset of this article, these three merged in 2001 to form the Bolsa Valores de Colombia as it stands today.
