THE Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE) has signed off on a seven-year agreement with global provider of trading service, Nasdaq Inc, aimed at leveraging Nasdaq’s matching engine and market surveillance technology (SMARTS) on the local stock market.

As part of its global strategy, JSE plans to bolster its product and service delivery to the regional and international markets. Through its partnership with Nasdaq Inc, JSE hopes to achieve this objective in addition to offering new products, enhancing current trading capabilities and improving the latency of order execution.

The market surveillance technology will also provide the exchange with the ability to closely monitor trade activities while strengthening market integrity.

“There are no boundaries that are beyond the JSE as the organisation continues to explore the use of technology that Nasdaq provides to ensure that our shareholders’ value are maximised and the confidence of the market remains high,” said Marlene Street Forrest, managing director of JSE.

“This partnership with Nasdaq is another step to keep apace with the world’s financial markets. We expect that this relationship will enable the JSE and its member dealers to design and create new products and services facilitated by the cutting-edge technology that Nasdaq will provide,” she continued.

As the leading Exchange in the Caribbean, the JSE has been strategically forging partnership with other industry players to ensure that its subsidiary, the Jamaica Central Securities Depository (JCSD), shareholders and the general public are able to maximise any opportunities that arises.

“The Jamaica Stock Exchange has been at the forefront of modernising the Caribbean region’s financial markets,” said Carlos Patino, head of Latin America and the Caribbean, Market Technology, Nasdaq. “By leveraging our trading and surveillance solutions, JSE will be operating on the world’s most widely used trading technology for exchanges in the world. This is a key indicator of their dedication to build Jamaica’s capital market ecosystem into an important hub for finance and commerce. We look forward to a productive, long-term partnership with the JSE.”A leading global provider of trading, clearing, exchange technology, listing, information and public company services, Nasdaq’s market technology powers more than 250 of the world’s market infrastructure organisations and market participants, including broker-dealers, exchanges, clearing-houses, central securities depositories and regulators, in over 50 countries with end-to-end, mission-critical technology solutions.