Nasdaq Nordics Praised for its Persistent Work in Expanding Market Access, Promoting Financial Literacy and Growing Businesses
At the 2022 Nordic Financial Ecosystem Forum, organized by Nasdaq and the Nordic Securities Association, attendees discussed the Capital Markets Union (CMU), a project dedicated to creating a single market for capital across the European Union (EU). Panels covered the plan from a corporate, young and digital investor perspective, the concern for diversity in securities markets and the need for more sustainable finance.
At the conference, Mairead McGuinness, European Commissioner for Financial Services, highlighted the achievements of Nasdaq’s Nordic capital markets in engaging new investors and helping to grow small businesses. According to McGuiness, the Nasdaq Nordic markets welcomed an exceptionally large number of IPOs last year—a whopping 174—supporting not only large companies but also a wide variety of small-medium sized enterprises (SMEs).
Nasdaq has led the way in growing SMEs, a key component of the EUs CMU Action plan. Through its First North Growth Market, an important growth platform enabling Nordic and international entrepreneurs to access growth capital to develop and expand their businesses, Nasdaq has helped over 100 companies join the main market over 10 years.
Another key part of the CMU process is to make the capital markets more accessible to citizens and increase the financial literacy among them. Again, the Nordic markets have been leading the way with a high number of households having capital investments. Alongside Nordic countries, Nasdaq has been promoting financial literacy. Nasdaq recently launched a pan-European financial literacy initiative to strengthen the awareness and knowledge of the financial markets and provide investors with information about the many opportunities and risks that it can bring.
The conference also discussed the urgent need for investment in sustainability and the green transition. The panels emphasized how Nasdaq and the Nordic markets are already well-positioned to support sustainable investments. As a pioneer in the development of green bonds, Nasdaq created its Sustainable Bond Market allowing companies to raise debt capital for investments with clear benefits to the environment.
In addition, as the connector between companies and investors, Nasdaq created Nasdaq’s Sustainable Bond Network, connecting issuers with investors, empowering them to evaluate impact and make informed investment decisions on sustainable bonds.
The bond market has seen a wide range of participation, including the city of Helsingborg, Sweden, which listed a sustainability-linked bond as part of their efforts to reach net-zero emissions by 2035.
In 2021, Nasdaq also acquired Puro.earth, the world´s first carbon crediting platform to offer industrial carbon removal instruments, providing a market that is verifiable and tradable through an open, online platform. Since Nasdaq acquired Puro.earth in 2021, it has seen rapid growth, with a 500% increase in participation in the past year.
According to McGuiness, The EU’s investment in Eurozone securitization, covered bonds, growth funding and strengthening of the SME Growth Markets, shows positive structural change in the EU capital markets when measuring the amount of IPOs, and the activity level of private equity, venture capital and equity shareholding.
Nasdaq’s European Markets will continue to work with the EU in realizing the CMU action plan, with a continued commitment to expanding market access, spreading financial literacy and supporting sustainable investment.
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