Managing Director of the Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE), Marlene Street Forrest says investors can expect direct market access to stock exchanges in the United States and Canada by February. 

Speaking on Taking Stock with Kalilah Reynolds, Street Forrest said the JSE is expecting to launch this initiative could come sooner. 

Direct market access would give Jamaican investors the option of trading stocks from stock markets from the US and Canada, from Jamaica.

Street Forrest said that investors said investing on these markets will be facilitated through local brokers. 

That was just one of the many projects she said the JSE will be undertaking in 2022, in a bid to boost investors participation in the market. 

She added that the option of short selling on the JSE should be available by September despite previous delays in the process. 

“The Lending and Borrowing Bureau takes some customisation and we’re just now decided on the service provider that we’ll be using so we’re full steam ahead,” she said. 

In addition to short selling, Street Forrest said that the JSE expects to launch its green bond market in December, as well as its Digital Asset Platform. 

Street Forrest said that the JSE is also waiting to see if it will be able to trade Government bonds this year. 

The company has also begun upgrading its website with plans to also upgrade its mobile application and its online trading platform.

“We have had a soft launch of our website… which we are getting really good reviews on,” she said. 

According to the Managing Director, the JSE will continue to adapt to the changes brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic and plan and execute its initiatives accordingly. 

For that reason, Street Forrest said she believes 2022 will be a great year for the stock exchange. 

She noted that despite still being in a pandemic, and the emergence of several variants of the COVID-19 virus, the exchange performed well.

Twenty companies listed to the JSE in 2021; 11 on the newly launched private market and nine across the main, junior and US markets, an improvement from only eight in 2020.

Street Forrest said this is an achievement considering that companies are still somewhat hesitant to list.

She said that the JSE expects that between the private and other markets, another 20 companies will come to market in 2022. 

“We have companies that are preparing to come to market but in more favourable conditions,” she said. 

She added that some companies would have been forced to delay listing as they were severely impacted by the pandemic and the resulting restrictions. 

“We have had companies that were near listing but they would have been affected by the pandemic; they are in the tourism sector so it is prudent for them to delay listing until a more favourable time,” she explained. 

Despite this, Street Forrest said the JSE is confident about its predictions for the new year. 

“I think people are beginning to live with the fact that there is COVID-19 and it will continue for a little while. There is life and people are continuing to plan … so we have put that into our projections for 2022,” she said.