Federation and Regionalization

Provincial brokers, along with those in London, have had a long standing interest in attaining uniform standards and in improving the status of their profession. Steps towards these ends have from time to time taken the form of suggestions for a charter for stock brokers, the work of the Council of Associated Stock Exchanges in promoting the codification of certain provincial rules, and the informal discussions which the provinces have had with London since the pre-war years, and which developed into much greater and happier collaboration in the nineteen fifties. During the early sixties these discussions resulted in a desire to set up a closer and more permanent system of collaboration, and to this end in 1962 a joint committee (the Co-ordination Committee) was set up to investigate the best framework whereby this could be achieved. The members of the Co-ordination Committee were drawn from London and the provinces, including the Provincial Brokers Stock Exchange, and the provinces themselves were eager to participate in the venture since they felt that with developments in communications and share ownership, rising costs and the need for better research and statistical services, a great deal more could be done collectively towards improved services for investors than could be accomplished in isolation. One possible solution of course was the formation of a national or united stock exchange with common membership, but it was generally agreed at the time that conditions were not quite suitable for such a development. It was felt that the answer lay in a federal arrangement, with executive powers on specific matters being vested in, and exercised by, a federally constituted committee. ¹ Following considerable discussion and three interim reports the final recommendations were put forward in the ‘Federation Document’, and after its acceptance by all parties the Federation of Stock Exchanges in Great Britain and Ireland came into being on July 1, 1965. Its objects were to “promote co-ordination of activities of Stock Exchanges in Great Britain and Ireland, to promote good service to and safeguards for the investing public, to promote facilities for companies having or seeking a quotation and to promote the interests of the Federated Exchanges and their members”. ²