Integration of stock exchanges in regions of Europe, Asia, Canada and the US

The exchanges of Southern Africa are used to suggest ways in which findings might be relevant to a region. Major findings are as follows. (1) Integration at a regional level is more advanced within single-country regions, suggesting the importance of the institutional environment. (2) Regional integration is particularly difficult even in single-country regions, since it opens the door to head-to-head competition between exchanges having the same prospective investor and issuer base. (3) Governments do best by removing official and market barriers, and by providing a common threshold within the region for prudential and structural rules. (4) Removing barriers does not guarantee full integration. (5) Governments are not successful in imposing institutions to support integration. The best governments can do is allow or encourage the private sector to provide such systems. (6) It may be easier, under certain circumstances, for governments to create a competing exchange than to urge exchanges to integrate. (Author abstract, modified)