Eastern Caribbean Securities Exchange
The Eastern Caribbean Securities Exchange (ECSE) is one of the five major stock exchanges in the English-speaking Caribbean.
It is unique for a number of reasons, the first being when it was founded in 2001, it was the first fully electronic regional securities market in the Western Hemisphere.
It was built to facilitate the listing and trading of securities from several countries. The countries whose securities are listed on the ECSE are all members of the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union (ECCU). They are Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, and St Vincent and the Grenadines. The countries that form the ECCU use a common currency, the Eastern Caribbean Dollar. One EC dollar is today worth about $55 or US$0.37.
Countries, for example, Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados, although geographically a part of the Caribbean not only have individual stock exchanges, but their own currencies because they are not a part of the ECCU, which is overseen by the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank and provides financial regulations that govern the EC currency.
The ECSE is headquartered on the island of St Kitts and its listed securities are a combination of government securities, corporate debt, and shares in companies that mainly operate in the utility and financial services industries. Trading takes place from Monday to Friday. The ECSE has two different types of markets: the Eastern Caribbean Securities Market and the Regional Government Securities Market.
The Regional Government Securities Market was created in 2002 and is dedicated solely to securities issued by the governments of the ECCU. Everything from government bonds to treasury bills. But the Eastern Caribbean Securities Market is where most of the action occurs. This is where daily trading takes place, and investors can buy or sell shares in companies.
Trading on this market is not as robust as on the Jamaica Stock Exchange. Its trading reports reveal that the exchange sometimes goes days without any trading, and when trading does take place, it’s only one or two securities.
Share prices on the ECSE range from EC$1.25, which is about US$0.46 cents to about EC$45, which is roughly US$17. For comparison, prices on the JSE currently range between less than $1, which is less than one US$0.01, to over $1,000 or about US$7. Similar to what happens on the Barbados Stock Exchange, prices on the ECSE can remain the same for days, sometimes weeks, because they are not being bought or sold regularly.
To invest in the Eastern Caribbean Securities Exchange is relatively easy. The exchange has a list of six authorised brokers from St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines and Grenada. Any one of these brokers will get investors started with an investment account and an advisor to help them decide what investments are best. A local broker can also reach out on behalf of investors.
