The World Federation of Exchanges - WFE
The World Federation of Exchanges represents 64 regulated exchanges across the world, and acts on behalf of ninety-nine (99) organisations in all, including the Affiliates and clearing Houses.
The member exchanges are home to more than 45.000 listed companies, while the widely used statistics database covers more than 350 indicators and more than 40 years of data from exchanges
worldwide. The members provide a significant contribution to the real economy, representing a total market capitalization of USD 63 500 trillion and a total trading value of USD 76 000 trillion, a value which is over 65% of world GDP.
Since its foundation 54 years ago, the WFE has organised committees, meetings, general assemblies, conferences, and workshops for its members to transfer knowledge and share expertise. As an industry trade organisation, the WFE has discussed virtually every aspect of the capital market: the technical, the commercial, the legal and the economic.
In the past four decades, the WFE has published studies and reports on issues such as self-regulation, cross border trading, HFT, cyber security, sustainability and many others besides.
Objective and mission
The WFE’s objective and mission can be summarized as follows:
- To advocate on behalf of the global exchange sector and to work with global regulators to establish standards for the proper functioning of publicly regulated securities markets;
- To remain/become the institutional reference source for best practice in the global securities and exchange industry;
- To support this role by the continuing and regular publication of research, studies and definitive capital market statistics;
- To support the development of publicly regulated exchanges in Emerging Markets by pooling and sharing knowledge, expertise and best practice;
- The WFE will always act to ensure and further the respect of international corporate governance and market compliance standards as set out by global regulators and standard setters, such as IOSCO, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision and the Financial Stability Board;
- To support member exchanges in the vital role of promoting sustainable finance values in the wider corporate sector;
- To help exchanges stay focused on their core social and economic role of channelling savings into productive investment.
- Supporting the industry as it constantly adapts to an evolving and fast-changing global market environment.
