Message to our members
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| >José Marcos Ramírez Miguel>Chairman of the Board of Directors |
The year 2007 was in many ways a surprising one for the securities industry. Although the world's financial markets were thrown into turmoil in the second half of the year, in Mexico we were able to preserve our capacity for financing and sustaining growth. A persistent crisis in credit circuits in the United States, along with prospects of slower growth and probably recession, fueled uncertainty and concern in leading global markets. But the performance of the markets in Mexico was more than satisfactory last year. Just to review the key figures:
- Value traded in the stock market rose 56%, and the IPC closed the year with a 12% gain.
- Market capitalization grew 15%, to 399.485 billion dollars.
- By the end of the year, there were 463 mutual funds and 32 fund managers operating, and their net assets rose by 27% to a total of 851 billion pesos.
- The amount of securities held in custody and managed by brokerage firms grew 26%, to a balance of 4.40 billion pesos.
- The number of brokerage firm clients grew 14%, to 192,887; the number of mutual fund investors also rose 14%, to 1,650,831 accounts.
Amid all this progress, a sign of the growing strength of the Mexican securities market, we at AMIB moved ahead on a number of projects in which we have been involved in recent years. For the purposes of brevity, I cannot mention them all in this message, but I'd like to highlight a few areas in which we made notable advances:
- Brokerage firm regulation
- Adjustment of practices and requirements pursuant to new market legislation introduced in 2006.
- Adjustment of a wide variety of trading schemes for the money, equity and derivative markets, and in clearing and settlement processes.
- Dealing with the fast-changing panoply of certified personnel, which now incorporates up to twenty separate certifiable positions. In the second cycle, which began in 2005, and up through December 31, 2007, we have so far accredited a total of 17,774 professionals.
- Promoted and strengthened prudential measures for risk prevention and mitigation by mutual fund managers and brokerage firms, through creation of an integrated, centralized Risk Management committee that covers both categories.
- Various proceedings with international organizations.
- Ongoing review of internal regulation and self-regulation in the securities industry, including the activities of figures like compliance officers that make us stronger as a self-regulatory institution.
- Steps to address the increasing degree of integration with international securities markets.
- An extraordinary level of activity in matters pertaining to the operation, distribution, and tax treatment of mutual funds, which is the fastest-growing product in our financial industry today.
- Processing and follow-up of numerous tax matters with the central fiscal authority and various offices of the Ministry of Finance.
- As always, an ongoing presence in the organization of nationwide promotional and training events that touched on all spheres of market brokerage, from trading drills with students to the highest-level forums for securities industry representation. >>
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