Bolsa de Valores de Asuncion: how it works, who runs it, and what issuers must disclose

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What this exchange is

The Bolsa de Valores de Asunción (BVA) — the Asunción Stock Exchange — sits in Asunción, the capital city of Paraguay. It was founded on 28 September 1977 by the Cámara Nacional de Comercio y Servicios del Paraguay, Paraguay’s National Chamber of Commerce, under its original name Bolsa de Valores y Productos de Asunción (BVPASA).

Its ISO 10383 market identifier code — the universal four-letter code that brokers and data vendors use to label where a security trades — is XVPA. Shares and bonds are priced in Paraguayan guaraníes (PYG; US$1 ≈ PYG 7,600 at mid-2025 rates), though some corporate instruments are denominated in US dollars.

The instruments traded include equities (company shares), corporate and government bonds, repurchase agreements — short-term loans between institutions backed by securities — and PYG/USD currency futures. Bonds remain the dominant traded instruments, according to transaction data up to October 2025.

Be candid with yourself: this is a small, bond-heavy market where equity trading plays a secondary role. The relatively smaller size of the market can result in lower trading volumes and potentially higher volatility, and it might be harder to quickly buy or sell large blocks of shares without affecting the price.

Anyone approaching the BVA/BVPASA hoping to trade equities with the ease of a developed market should temper those expectations; corporate bonds and securitised instruments are far more active.

Who owns it

The exchange was originally founded by the National Chamber of Commerce. It subsequently converted into a private limited company — a sociedad anónima (S.A.) under Paraguayan corporate law — and is now formally named Bolsa de Valores y Productos de Asunción S.A.

(BVPASA). Its own shares are not publicly listed on itself; membership is held through licensed broking firms, called casas de bolsa, each of which holds a seat on the exchange.

By law, the exchange may not distribute dividends; any profits must be directed exclusively to the development and improvement of exchange activities. The exchange is not part of a regional stock exchange group, though it is a member of the Federación Iberoamericana de Bolsas (FIAB), the Ibero-American Federation of Exchanges, whose members include Brazil’s B3, the Madrid Stock Exchange, and the Mexican Stock Exchange.

Not published: the exchange’s own website at bvpasa.com.py was unreachable at the time of writing, and the names of the current chief executive and board chair are not confirmed in any source the regulator or FIAB publishes in English. The name Rodrigo Javier Rojas Vera appears in third-party corporate databases as chief executive, but this cannot be verified against an official primary source.

Who regulates it

The stock market in Paraguay is primarily regulated by the Capital Markets and Products Law, Law No. 7572/2025, promulgated on 7 November 2025. This comprehensive framework replaced prior laws including Law 5810/17 on public securities offerings, Law 5452/15 on investment funds, and Law 1163/97 on product exchanges.

It is the statute that gives the regulator its power to authorise, inspect, sanction and remove any participant in the market.

The Banco Central del Paraguay — the Central Bank of Paraguay — is the authority responsible for applying this law, and it exercises supervision and control of the securities and products market through the Superintendencia de Valores (SIV), the Securities Superintendency. The SIV is a technical body that forms part of the Central Bank but operates with functional and administrative autonomy.

The SIV replaced what was previously a standalone agency, the Comisión Nacional de Valores (CNV), under Law 7162 passed in 2023.

The regulator’s powers include inspecting and supervising compliance with the securities law; preserving competitive, orderly and transparent markets; ensuring correct price formation; facilitating the spread of information to protect investors; and maintaining the public register of the securities market. Public filings and the Registro Público del Mercado de Valores — the register where all issuers, securities and intermediaries must enrol — are administered by the SIV through the Central Bank.

The Central Bank’s regulatory website is bcp.gov.py; the former CNV portal at cnv.gov.py was unreachable at the time of writing.

What trades there

The exchange lists equities, corporate bonds, government bonds, repurchase agreements (short-term secured loans between institutions), debt securities, and PYG/USD currency futures. The product range has expanded in recent years to include subordinated bonds, trusts, mutual funds, marketable certificates, and securitised assets.

The CNV’s General Market Regulation includes a dedicated prospectus template for SME share issues — listed under a specific PYME (small and medium enterprise) equities segment. This SME segment provides a lighter-touch listing pathway for smaller companies, separate from the main board.

The 2025 reform also introduced more flexible instruments suited to both large corporations and small and medium enterprises, including private and public investment funds and financial derivatives.

Two share indices track listed equity performance: the PDV General Index, which covers the whole equity market, and the PDV 20 Index, which tracks the twenty most traded shares. Not published: the exchange’s own website was inaccessible when this page was prepared, so the methodology for index construction, the selection criteria for the PDV 20 basket, and the frequency of reconstitution could not be confirmed against primary exchange documentation.

Third-party sources attribute calculation of both indices to the exchange itself.

What it takes to list

To offer securities to the public in Paraguay, a company must register both itself and the securities it wishes to issue with the Registro Público del Mercado de Valores, the public securities register held by the SIV. Only securities whose issuer has been inscribed in this register may be offered to the public.

The regulator has fifteen business days from the receipt of a complete application to process a registration request.

Eligible issuers include sociedades anónimas — Paraguayan joint-stock companies — and other legal persons that the regulator specifically authorises by general regulation. A notable feature of the new 2025 law is that foreign legal entities already registered on regulated markets overseen by recognised foreign authorities may make local public offerings without incorporating a Paraguayan company, subject to registration and disclosure requirements.

Not published: the exchange’s own listing rulebook (reglamento de bolsa) was inaccessible at the time of preparation of this page. Specific numerical thresholds for minimum paid-up capital, minimum free-float percentage (the portion of shares available to the public), and minimum operating track record for an equity listing could not be verified against the primary exchange document.

The CNV’s General Market Regulations (Resolution CG No. 30/21, updated by Resolution CG No. 35/23) govern these conditions in Spanish, but precise figures in guaraníes could not be confirmed from an accessible English-language or official Spanish primary source.

What companies must tell you

This is the most important section for any foreigner reading a Paraguayan filing — because it tells you what you cannot assume exists. The law limits regulatory supervision of issuers to compliance with securities rules on the issuance, public offering and registration of securities, and the reporting regime; it does not extend to supervising the issuer’s day-to-day business activities.

Audited annual financial statements are required of registered issuers, and financial statements must be filed within six months of the fiscal year-end.

Companies are required to declare their ultimate beneficial owners — that is, the natural persons who ultimately own or control them — to the Directorate of Companies and Legal Structures and Ultimate Beneficial Owners; these reports must include the address, ID number, full name, shareholding percentage and profession of each shareholder. The ultimate beneficial owner report must be updated once a year if there are no changes, or within 15 working days after any change occurs.

Supervised entities must provide the regulator and the exchange with information about transactions with related parties — connected persons such as directors, controlling shareholders and their families — and the regulator determines by general regulation the content, frequency and publication of that information. The Capital Markets and Products Law of 2025 has tightened disclosure and advertising requirements, enhancing overall market transparency.

What the rules do NOT demand, and what no source writes down in plain English: there is no requirement for filings to be published in English. There is no mandatory quarterly financial report analogous to the US Form 10-Q.

While Paraguayan regulations historically offered limited specific protection for minority shareholders, the new Law No. 7572/2025 significantly reinforces these safeguards, though they are still being implemented. Board remuneration disclosure thresholds are not specified in any English-language primary source reviewed for this page.

Not published: the precise shareholding percentage at which a shareholder must make a public ownership disclosure (sometimes called a major-shareholding notification threshold) is not stated in any English-language primary or secondary source found; it is governed by the General Market Regulation in Spanish, and the relevant provisions were not accessible online at the time of preparation.

How trading works

The exchange runs Monday through Friday, 08:30 to 17:30 local Asunción time (UTC-4 in standard time, UTC-3 during summer daylight saving), and it offers both open-outcry floor trading and electronic trading. Paraguay observes approximately 250 trading days per year, minus around ten public holidays.

In January 2026 the Asunción Stock Exchange migrated its trading infrastructure to a Nasdaq-powered platform.

Prices are formed by continuous order matching during the session: buyers and sellers submit orders, and the system crosses them at the best available price — the standard price-discovery mechanism seen on most exchanges. The 2023 reform to the General Market Regulation introduced market-maker provisions — firms specifically paid to stand ready as buyers and sellers of last resort in order to maintain liquidity — though their activation was pending as of that regulation’s publication.

Not published: specific details about the types of orders permitted (limit orders, market orders, stop orders), the precise circuit-breaker mechanism — the automatic trading halt triggered when a price moves too far in one session — and intraday price bands are not set out in any English-language primary source reviewed. These details are governed by the exchange’s own operational regulations, which were inaccessible at the time of writing.

How a trade is settled

When you buy a share or bond on this exchange, the actual transfer of money and securities does not happen instantly. Standard settlement for equities on the BVPASA is T+2 — meaning money and shares change hands two working days after you execute the trade.

Bonds and repurchase agreements may settle on different cycles depending on the terms of the instrument.

The exchange itself operates a guarantee fund, funded by contributions from licensed broking firms, that backs trade completion — what larger markets would call a central counterparty guarantee mechanism. The resources of this guarantee fund may only be invested in deposits at financial institutions, debt securities rated in the top three risk categories, government-guaranteed instruments, or other forms the regulator specifically authorises.

The entity that keeps the central register of who owns what — the securities depository — is the Caja de Valores, the local central securities depository.

Not published: whether shares held through the exchange are registered in the beneficial owner’s own name or held under the name of a local nominee custodian (a firm that holds title on your behalf) is not specified in any English-language primary source reviewed. Foreign investors should confirm this directly with the broking firm they use before trading.

Short selling, lending and margin

Short selling — betting that a share price will fall by borrowing shares and selling them, hoping to buy them back more cheaply later — is not a standard feature of this market in practice. Securities lending as an organised, exchange-supported activity does not appear in any primary or secondary source reviewed.

Margin trading — using a broker’s credit to buy more securities than you could fund with your own cash — is similarly not described in any publicly available exchange or regulatory document.

This matters because it directly shapes how prices move. Without short sellers, overprice mispricing can persist longer than in developed markets; without margin, forced selling cascades are less likely but so is leveraged buying.

For a foreign analyst or investor, the practical consequence is a market where price discovery is slower, bid-offer spreads are wider, and entry and exit for any meaningful position require patience.

Can a foreigner buy here?

Paraguay imposes no legal restriction on foreigners investing in its securities market. There is no requirement to register with the Central Bank or the SIV simply to buy shares.

What you must do in practice is open a brokerage account with a licensed casa de bolsa — one of the approximately ten licenced brokers on the exchange — and provide standard identity and source-of-funds documentation. Investors access the exchange through these licensed brokers who execute buy and sell orders on their behalf.

On dividends, the tax position is clear. Dividends paid to non-residents attract a 15% withholding tax (IDU — Impuesto a los Dividendos y Utilidades, the dividends and profits tax), deducted at source before payment reaches you.

Capital gains from selling shares are taxed under the non-resident income tax (INR) at a nominal rate of 15% for non-residents. Publicly traded shares on the exchange are generally exempt from capital gains tax if transactions are executed through the exchange — confirm this exemption with a Paraguayan tax adviser, as it is the most valuable concession available to a foreign equity investor.

Capital can be freely repatriated out of Paraguay with no exchange controls. Paraguay has no foreign ownership ceilings on shares.

Relief from the 15% withholding rates may be available under a double taxation treaty; Paraguay’s treaty network is limited, with Spain, Chile, and the UAE among the few partners, but in the absence of a relevant treaty the statutory rates apply. No foreign-listed depositary receipt programme (an ADR or GDR) exists for Paraguayan equities, so the only practical route is direct investment through a local broker.

What it costs

Not published: the exchange’s own fee schedule for initial listing and annual maintenance fees — the tariffs a company pays to the exchange to be admitted and to stay listed — was not accessible from the exchange website or from any confirmed primary regulatory source at the time of writing. CNV Resolution CG No. 46/18 (as amended) sets the aranceles — the tariff schedule — payable to the securities regulator by supervised entities, but the text of the current schedule in accessible form does not include the full exchange fee table.

This is a genuine gap for any company considering a listing: the tariff must be obtained directly from the exchange.

On brokerage commissions — what you pay to a licenced broker to execute a trade — no official published schedule was found in English. Market participants describe commissions as negotiated individually with the broker but typically falling in the range of 0.1% to 0.5% of the trade value for institutional clients, with retail commissions higher.

There is no transaction tax (stamp duty or financial transaction tax) on securities trades in Paraguay: Paraguay does not impose stamp duties or capital duties, though registration fees and notarial costs may apply to certain transactions.

Where the prices are

The exchange’s own website (bvpasa.com.py) publishes daily closing prices, trading reports, and issuer filings in Spanish; at the time of writing, the site was intermittently unreachable from international connections, which is itself a signal about accessibility for foreign users. The SIV and the Central Bank publish some market statistics on bcp.gov.py.

Real-time prices are not available free of charge to public users; licensed brokers have terminal access.

Among major international data vendors, Bloomberg and Refinitiv (LSEG) carry Paraguayan exchange data under the .PY suffix, but coverage is thin and may be delayed by fifteen minutes or more on the standard data tier. The exchange does not appear in the mainstream index products of MSCI, FTSE Russell, or S&P Dow Jones, which means it is absent from most passive fund mandates and institutional benchmark universes.

This is precisely why English-language research and analyst coverage of individual Paraguayan listed companies is almost non-existent: the absence from global indices removes the commercial incentive for international brokers to cover the market.