Chilean, Colombian and Peruvian securities regulators on Wednesday signed an agreement aimed at facilitating integration among these three markets.
The regulators agreed to cooperate in the current project to integrate the three country’s stock markets and depository trusts.
Market officials are in the process of setting up an integration timeline and are meeting with market participants, such as issuers, intermediaries, and custodians, to set up an integration process.
“Financial-markets regulators in Chile, Colombia and Peru all emphatically support the initiative to integrate our countries’ stock markets,” Chilean regulator Guillermo Larrain told reporters.
Colombian regulator Jorge Castano added that the three markets complement each other and that the integration will give Colombian investors access to other markets in the region.
The integration among the three markets is expected to take effect in late 2010.
Mining stocks make up almost two-thirds of the Lima Stock Exchange, while 50% of Colombia’s main index is energy companies. Chile’s index is a mix of services companies and industrial stocks. (Carolina Pica / Dow Jones)