Innovation is a critical foundation of our mission to be – and remain – future fit in a world as ever-changing, uncertain, complex and ambiguous as ours, and we have passed many milestones on that journey so far. As we continue to execute our strategy with speed and discipline, our Information Services Division is beginning to play a larger role in helping us reinforce our position as the centre for innovation for African finance, developing markets and, indeed, the world.

It’s an old African truism that if you want to go fast, you go alone, but if you want to go far, you go with others. One of the cornerstones of our future-fit journey is collaboration. In 2022, we launched the JSE Trade Explorer, working with big xyt, a global independent data and analytics supplier. Together we deployed a brand-new information service that leverages big xyt’s Liquidity Cockpit and uses unique peer group rankings to allow trading firms to explore their market share, examine how they interact with the order book and rate their own trading performance. This granular information helps improve one-on-one interactions with clients, as well as fine-tuning strategies and AI-based algorithms.

Last month we also launched Colo 2.0, our brand-new cloud-based colocation service, which is also the fruit of an international tech collaboration. Working with two global market leaders, Beeks and IPC, we are now able to offer our clients on-demand private cloud computing and low-latency analytics through this industry-leading private portal, which lets them manage and configure infrastructure as they need.

Colo 2.0, as we call it, is a multi-tenant solution that reduces time to market as well as total cost of ownership, at the same time providing PTP (precision time protocol) time stamping, improved flexibility and scalability, a built-in analytics server and a single point of contact for support and invoicing. But perhaps an even more important aspect of our venture into cloud computing is the potential to implement a modern, scalable data platform that allows clients seamless access to exchange data through a range of modern channels, whether streaming or a digital portal, as we re-imagine what a modern, flexible and agile JSE data platform can be.

These collaborations follow hot on the heels of work we did with Globacap when we launched JSE Private Placements (JPP) last year, which helps private entities raise debt and equity capital efficiently and transparently through a highly accessible automated and digitalised platform.

Innovation is not only linked to technology. As founder members of the Global Investors for Sustainable Development Alliance, it is incumbent on us to develop sustainable finance tools. It is becoming abundantly clear that we have to mobilise and facilitate the flow of capital to help SA (and the world) transition to a low-carbon economy. SA currently allows companies to offset up to 10% of their carbon tax through carbon credits, and we have developed a three-pronged approach to address this.

The first leg of the strategy is to craft a public market framework to enable companies to raise capital for climate change-mitigating projects and using the private placement market to raise capital for similar projects in the unlisted space. The second is to work with potential trading platform providers on carbon credits and renewable electricity certificates as we speak to JSE-listed companies to better understand their net zero commitment strategies and expected demand for carbon credits through to 2050.

Finally, we are looking to list a carbon credit futures contract to be traded on our well-developed commodity derivatives market, allowing project developers to forward sell carbon credits and secure finance for their projects.

The past quarter has been busy for us at the JSE. Our work is critical in ensuring we remain the partner of choice when it comes to investing and raising capital in this country and the continent. I am very glad to be taking this exciting journey with you as we build a sustainable and resilient capital market.

Dr Leila Fourie
Group Chief Executive Officer