The Barcelona Stock Exchange, in existence for more than a century, continues to be one of Europe’s leading stock exchanges. Officially created in 1915, the Barcelona Stock Exchange continues to strive for the highest quality and range of services for its clients. As the stock exchange for the Catalonia community, the Barcelona Stock Exchange sees the promotion and development of this area of Spain as its core priority.
With a primary focus on SMEs as the economic drivers for the region (more than 95% of businesses), the Barcelona Stock Exchange covers sectors including leisure, tourism, manufacturing, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, green energy and fintech, providing them with constant advice and support in the admission to listing of their securities on the Stock Exchange or on "BME Growth".
The Stock Exchange of Barcelona is conscious of this and of the need to facilitate access to finance for current and future companies, so that they can compete in both domestic and international markets.
History
The origins of the Barcelona Stock Exchange date back to the Middle Ages with the appearance of the Merchandise Markets, when the Commercial Revolution took place in Catalonia. In 1271 the "Ordinacions" of Jaime I are promulgated, which constitutes the most complete ancient text regulating the figure of the mercantile mediator.
From the origins indicated in the previous paragraph, the headquarters of the Barcelona Stock Exchange were located in the Gothic building of the Casa Llotja de Mar located on Paseo de Isabel II.
In the mid-nineteenth century, with the industrial take-off and the birth of the first Catalan Public Limited Companies, the trading of securities began and in Barcelona there is an active market in which the Real Brokers act as mediators, predecessors of the Agents of Exchange and Stock Exchange.
In 1915 the Official Stock Exchange of Barcelona was created, whose government and administration corresponded, until July 29, 1989, to the College of Exchange and Stock Exchange Agents, maintaining, throughout this period, the operational activity of the Barcelona Stock Exchange at its historic headquarters in the Casa Llotja de Mar building.
Since July 29, 1989, with the entry into force of Law 24/1988 on the Securities Market, the Barcelona Stock Exchange is governed and administered by the Governing Society of the Barcelona Stock Exchange.
As a consequence of the progressive substitution of verbal trading by the new electronic trading systems, on May 4, 1994, the new Electronic Parquet of the Barcelona Stock Exchange was inaugurated, located at Paseo de Gracia, 19.
The modern location of the Electronic Parquet is configured as the natural meeting point of the financial centre of Barcelona. The boxes of the market members were located in this Electronic Parquet, equipped with the most advanced technology at that time.
Starting in 2002, the Barcelona Stock Exchange, together with Iberclear and the rest of the Spanish markets, constituted the Bolsas y Mercados Españoles (BME) group, which develops a unified strategy aimed at achieving the maximum competitiveness of the Spanish markets to face with guarantees all the challenges of the future in a context marked by the globalization and internationalization of markets.
In 2020, Bolsas y Mercados Españoles, a group of which the Barcelona Stock Exchange is a part, is acquired by SIX Group, the Swiss market infrastructure operator, after a successful takeover bid that culminated in the delisting of BME and gave birth to the third largest stock market group in Europe.