A bell-ringing ceremony was held on January 19 at the Mongolian Stock Exchange (MSE) hall to mark the 35th anniversary of the establishment and development of the Exchange and the country’s capital market.
According to statistical data presented at the ceremony, securities worth a total of 8.8 trillion MNT have been traded over the past 35 years, including five trillion MNT in the primary market and 3.3 trillion MNT in the secondary market.
Opening the ceremony, Acting CEO of MSE D.Munkhbat congratulated Government representatives, senior experts and colleagues on the 35th anniversary of the exchange. He recalled that in line with Mongolia’s transition from a centrally planned economy to a market economy, the Government adopted Resolution No. 22 on January 18, 1991, establishing the Exchange to initiate state property privatization and develop the securities market.
He noted that under the Government’s privatization policy, 475 state-owned enterprises were transformed into joint-stock companies, and 96.1 million shares worth a total of 8.2 billion MNT were distributed to citizens through the MSE in the form of investment certificates. As a result, about 52 percent of Mongolia’s population, or 1.2 million people, became shareholders at that time. Primary securities trading officially began on February 7, 1992.
D.Munkhbat highlighted key milestones in the development of the capital market, including the first government bond trading in 1996, the calculation of the TOP-75 index in 1999, the launch of corporate bond trading in 2001, and the first initial public offering in 2005 by Mongol Shiltgeen LLC. In 2012, the capital market infrastructure was aligned with international standards through the introduction of the Millennium IT integrated trading, clearing, settlement, surveillance and depository system. That same year, Mongolia was placed on the FTSE “Emerging Market” watch list.
Further progress followed with the adoption of the revised Securities Market Law and the Investment Fund Law in 2013, the start of public privatization of state-owned assets through the stock exchange in 2016, and Mongolia’s inclusion in the FTSE Russell “Frontier Market” category in 2022. In the same year, the MSE became a public joint-stock company by offering 34 percent of its shares to the public. In recent years, notable achievements included the IPOs of systemically important banks in 2023, obtaining a license to operate the Mining Products Exchange, and the successful trading of local government bonds for the first time in 2024.
Speaking at the event, Head of the Securities Department of the Financial Regulatory Commission B.Dulguun congratulated market participants on the anniversary and emphasized that over the past 35 years, regulators and market professionals have worked closely together to build a securities market that meets international standards. He noted that the next decades of development will focus on strengthening cooperation among regulatory bodies, market infrastructure institutions, and intermediary organizations to transform Mongolia’s capital market into a regionally and internationally competitive one.
