Thukten Zangpo 

Royal Securities Exchange of Bhutan Limited (RSEBL) will sell its software system to the Maldives Stock Exchange.

However, for the trade-off, the RSEBL will have to send a proposal to the Maldives Stock Exchange (MSE).

An official from RSEBL said that MSE has expressed to buy the system, as both countries have smaller economies with growing stock markets.

“This will not only showcase our technology outside, but will also serve to build good will between our two countries,” the official said.

The RSEBL started building its own system in 2017 after the maintenance cost of a third-party system purchased from Singapore was higher than profits.

“Maintenance costs for a year were more than the company’s profit over five years, “an official said. The company paid USD 0.7 million (M) equivalent to Nu 52M between 2012 to 2017.  It took two years for the company to build the system.

“Being a small exchange market, it is very difficult to sustain with an expensive third-party system outsourced from outside,” the official said, adding that a system is a required solution for the Maldives’s market.

He also said that the cost will be minimal and the company will make earnings from the licensing fee and annual maintenance costs.

However, he added that the company will have to incorporate the regulatory requirements, licensing, and intellectual property rights to sell the system outside.

The RSEBL system has five components, namely the trading engine that determines the best price among the buyers and sellers, a depository which is a database for share ownership, clearing, and settlements for purchase of shares on one end of the transaction and sale on the other.  It also includes brokering offices for share orders from the broker’s terminal and an Initial Public Offerings (IPO) engine to capture the order in the fresh IPOs.

The system would also have a mobile app to directly buy and sell the shares.