A second trilateral meeting among the representatives of the stock exchanges of Istanbul, Athens and Tel-Aviv was held in Istanbul on October 19, 2002 as a continuation of the collaboration efforts of all three stock exchanges. Under the leadership of the chairmen of the three stock exchanges, namely; Mr. Osman Birsen of Istanbul Stock Exchange, Mr. Panayotis Alexakis of Athens Exchange and Mr. Yair Orgler of Tel-Aviv Stock Exchange, the representatives of the three exchanges, the associations of the member institutions as well as the central securities depositories (CSDs) attended the meeting.

The issues discussed at the meeting were; the establishment of the technical infrastructure for member to member cross-border trading, the creation of a regional index covering the three markets, the establishment of regional funds, multilingual disclosure issues as well as the facilitation of cross-border settlement and clearing through the cooperation of local CSDs.

More specifically, the participants have agreed upon the following:

1. A regional index, which is based on the shares of the major companies traded at the three stock exchanges, will be established with the help of an internationally recognized organization specialising in the formation of indices. The associations of the member institutions will form a working committee to study the issues of a regional index and the promotion of regional funds.

2. The members of the three stock exchanges will choose from a variety of feasible technical solutions available in order to facilitate order routing for cross-border trading. The associations of the member institutions of the three countries will also actively promote the cooperation of their members through meetings in each country.

3. The CSDs of the three countries will form a working committee to further study the efficient facilitation of cross-border clearing and settlement as well as handling corporate actions.

4. In view of the local regulations, the three stock exchanges will study the issues of the standardised formats and the multilingual disclosure of the information regarding the listed companies.

It is agreed that the commissioned working committees will meet in order to workout the details of the various projects discussed at the meeting. The targeted date to enable cross﷓border trading among members who choose to do so is May 2003, subject to consultations with local regulators.