As the successor to the first Hungarian stock exchange, founded more than 150 years ago in 1864, the Budapest Stock Exchange plays a pivotal role both in Hungary’s and the Central Eastern European region’s capital markets. As a result of the dynamic growth it achieved after its re-establishment in 1990, BSE now provides the highest level of service, in compliance with the standards of developed markets, to security issuers, traders and investors from around the world.

 

In the last two and a half decades, Budapest Stock Exchange evolved into the most innovative market in the region: it was the first to introduce, among other activities, options and futures trading. The exchange pioneered the listing of exchange-traded funds in the region and was among the first to use central counterparty services, an essential component of the safety of settlements, in collaboration with KELER.

 

Today, BSE offers investors the broadest range of products in the region. Alongside equities and debt securities, which are the traditionally the most popular, the range also includes investment funds and structured products, as well as international equities. Its derivatives market encompasses not only futures and options trading, but also a foreign currency market with the highest trading volume in Europe and a commodities market which is unique in the region.

 

On 20 November 2015, the National Bank of Hungary (MNB) concluded a purchase agreement with the former owners of the Budapest Stock Exchange, the Austrian CEESEG AG and Österreichische Kontrollbank AG. As a result of this transaction, MNB became the qualified majority shareholder in BSE. Brought under national ownership, BSE was required by its new owner to formulate a five-year strategy for 2016-2020 along the lines of capital market development objectives in order to set the priorities thatwill determine the direction of stock market development for years to come.