Bahamas International Securities Exchange (BISX): how it works, who runs it, and what issuers must disclose

What this exchange is

The Bahamas International Securities Exchange, universally known as BISX, sits in Nassau and is the only stock exchange in The Bahamas. It was incorporated on 23 September 1999 and opened for trading in May 2000.

Its ISO 10383 market identifier code is XBAA, and shares are priced in Bahamian dollars, which are pegged one-for-one to the US dollar.

What actually changes hands there is a mix: shares in about twenty domestic companies, preference shares, and a large shelf of Bahamian-dollar government and corporate bonds. The equity market is small and thinly traded, while government registered stock is the deeper, more active part of national financial life.

A foreign reader should understand BISX as a genuine but modest marketplace, not a formality, yet one where bonds matter more than shares.

Who owns it

BISX is a private limited company, Bahamas International Securities Exchange Limited, incorporated under Bahamian law. It was founded by a group of Bahamian financial institutions and brokers rather than by the government, and it has never been a members’ club in the old mutual sense.

Its own shares are not listed on the exchange.

The exchange is not part of any larger regional group; it is a standalone national institution. The chief executive is Keith Davies, who has led BISX since its early years.

The chair is not prominently published on the exchange’s current site, and the board’s full composition is not set out in the public pages reviewed.

Who regulates it

BISX is supervised by the Securities Commission of The Bahamas, the national securities regulator, under the Securities Industry Act, 2011 and its accompanying Securities Industry Regulations, 2012. The Commission licenses the exchange, approves its rules, and can compel listed companies to file required disclosures or face sanctions including fines and delisting.

It cannot, however, guarantee the truth of what a company files; its role is to enforce the filing and conduct rules, not to audit the underlying business.

Public filings by listed companies are lodged with BISX itself and are available through the exchange’s website and its offices in Nassau. The regulator’s own public registry and enforcement notices are published at scb.gov.bs.

A foreign reader should expect company announcements to appear first on the BISX site rather than on a centralised regulator database.

What trades there

BISX operates a single equity board for ordinary and preference shares, alongside a substantial market for Bahamian-dollar government registered stock and corporate bonds. There is no derivatives market and no dedicated fund listing board, though investment products appear among the more than 250 securities the exchange reports.

A smaller, separate facility for young or fast-growing companies has been discussed publicly but is not yet a formal listing tier.

The main share index is the BISX All Share Index, calculated and published daily by the exchange itself. It is a market-capitalisation-weighted index covering primary-market equity listings and excluding debt securities.

The index is redrawn as listings change, but BISX does not publish a fixed quarterly review calendar; inclusion follows from a company having its shares listed on the main board.

What it takes to list

A company seeking to list its shares on BISX must meet requirements set out in the exchange’s listing rules, which are approved by the Securities Commission. The exchange requires a company to have a viable business, audited financial statements, and a board and governance structure acceptable to BISX.

The rules do not publish a single universal minimum capital figure; instead, BISX assesses each applicant on its size, profitability and prospects.

Not published: the exchange’s public website does not state a fixed minimum public float or a minimum number of shareholders as a hard numeric threshold. The governing Securities Industry Act, 2011 empowers the Commission to impose conditions on any listing, and BISX applies its own qualitative tests case by case.

A company that cannot demonstrate a genuine operating business and proper financial controls will not be admitted, but the precise numeric hurdles are not set out in the public pages reviewed.

What companies must tell you

Listed companies must publish audited annual financial statements within three months of their financial year-end, and they must also file semi-annual unaudited results. The accounts must be prepared by an auditor acceptable to BISX and are published in English.

Quarterly reporting is not a standing requirement for every issuer, though some companies choose to publish more often.

A shareholder who crosses 10% of a listed company must disclose that holding to the exchange and the company, a major-shareholding disclosure threshold. Deals between a company and its directors or connected parties must be disclosed, and the board’s aggregate remuneration must be reported in the annual accounts.

What the rules do not demand is equally important: there is no requirement for a separate corporate-governance report in a prescribed format, and no rule forcing companies to hold analyst calls or publish investor presentations in English beyond the core filings.

How trading works

The market is open from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., Monday to Friday, excluding Bahamian public holidays, with hours quoted in Eastern Standard Time. Trading is not a continuous electronic order book in the manner of a large international exchange; it operates through licensed broker-dealers who match orders by telephone and through the BISX automated trading system.

Prices are formed by negotiation between brokers rather than by a central limit order book.

There are no published price-movement limits or automatic trading halts of the kind seen on larger exchanges, and BISX does not operate a formal market-maker scheme requiring anyone to stand ready to buy and sell continuously. The exchange is open roughly 250 trading days a year, in line with a standard five-day week less public holidays.

How a trade is settled

Once a trade is agreed, the exchange’s clearing and settlement function stands between the buyer and seller to ensure that money and shares are exchanged. The record of who owns what is kept by the Bahamas Central Securities Depository, which operates alongside BISX and holds securities in electronic form.

Settlement takes place three business days after the trade date, what the market calls T+3.

Shares are held in the depository under the name of the investor’s broker or custodian rather than directly in the investor’s own name, a nominee structure common in small markets. This means the investor is the beneficial owner but does not appear on the company’s share register in their own name unless they specifically arrange direct registration.

Short selling, lending and margin

Short selling, securities lending and margin trading are not established features of the BISX market. There is no published facility for borrowing shares to sell them short, and no central securities-lending programme.

Brokers may extend credit to clients at their own discretion, but there is no exchange-wide margin regime with published collateral rules.

For most practical purposes, an investor cannot bet against a Bahamian listed share. That absence is one reason the market is quiet and prices move slowly; there is no mechanism for negative views to be expressed through the exchange itself.

Can a foreigner buy here?

A non-resident can buy shares on BISX by opening an account with a licensed Bahamian broker-dealer. There is no requirement for a foreigner to register separately with the Securities Commission or the Central Bank merely to hold listed shares, though exchange-control rules administered by the Central Bank of The Bahamas govern the movement of money into and out of the country.

A foreign investor should expect to provide standard identification and proof of address to the broker.

Dividends paid to non-residents are not subject to Bahamian withholding tax, and there is no capital gains tax in The Bahamas. Money can be repatriated freely once exchange-control approval is obtained, which for portfolio investment is normally routine.

There is no foreign-listed depositary receipt programme for BISX shares, so the only practical route is through a local broker.

What it costs

BISX charges an initial listing fee and an annual fee, both scaled to the size and type of security. The exchange does not publish a single flat tariff on its public website; fees are set out in the listing rules and are negotiated with the issuer.

Brokerage commissions on trades are set by individual brokers and typically run between 1% and 2% of the trade value.

There is no stamp duty or transaction tax on share trades in The Bahamas. The main cost a foreign investor faces is therefore the broker’s commission plus any bank charges for moving money into and out of the country.

Where the prices are

Prices and index levels are published on the BISX website, bisxbahamas.com, with closing data updated daily. The exchange publishes a daily official list of closing prices and the All Share Index level.

The data is end-of-day rather than live for most public users, and there is no free real-time feed for retail investors.

The major international data vendors carry BISX only patchily. Bloomberg and Refinitiv list some Bahamian securities, but coverage is thin and often delayed, which is why English-language reporting on these companies is so sparse.

Anyone serious about following the market must go to the exchange’s own site or to a Bahamian broker.