Bolsa de Valores Nacional: how it works, who runs it, and what issuers must disclose
What this exchange is
The Bolsa de Valores Nacional, S.A. (BVN) — National Stock Exchange of Guatemala — was established at the end of 1987 and exists to provide the physical place, the infrastructure and the rules that let licensed brokers conduct securities transactions in a centralised, regulated way.
It sits in Guatemala City, in the Centro Financiero Torre 2, Zone 4, and its ISO 10383 market-identification code — the standard four-letter tag used by data companies and trading systems worldwide — is XGTG. Securities are priced in Guatemalan quetzals (GTQ); one quetzal is worth approximately US$0.13 at the mid-2026 rate.
Activity at BVN is today concentrated overwhelmingly on fixed-income instruments — bonds and debt certificates — used by the government and the corporate sector to raise capital. Unlike larger Latin American exchanges that have developed equity sections, Guatemala’s market has no meaningful equity segment, which defines its conservative profile: it is focused on stability rather than speculation.
Think of it less as a stock market and more as an organised lending platform: companies and the Guatemalan state borrow from the public through the exchange, and investors receive interest. Equities are legal and have existed briefly, but corporate shares are a sideshow; if you come here looking for a deep pool of company stocks, you are looking at the wrong marketplace.
Who owns it
BVN is a private company owned by brokerage firms — making it a mutualised structure — alongside independent shareholders. It is not itself listed on the exchange.
The exchange’s supreme governing body is its General Assembly of Shareholders, which holds the power to modify the internal rules. In structural terms BVN was always a commercial company (Sociedad Anónima) rather than a members’ club that later converted: Guatemala’s 1987 framework created it as a private corporate entity from the outset.
Not published: the exchange’s own website (bvnsa.com.gt) does not name its current chief executive or chair in any publicly accessible English or Spanish page. The BVN’s internal rulebook, its Reglamento Interno, establishes a Board of Directors (Consejo de Administración) as the day-to-day governing body, but individual names are not published there.
BVN does not belong to any regional exchange group; it operates as a stand-alone national institution.
Who regulates it
The overseer is the Registro del Mercado de Valores y Mercancías (RMVyM) — Guatemala’s Registry of Securities and Commodities Markets — created by Decree 34-96 of Congress as a strictly technical body within the Ministry of Economy, whose purpose is the legal review and registration of every act and contract performed by participants in the securities market. The Registry is led by a Registrar appointed by the President of the Republic for a six-year term, chosen from a shortlist proposed by the Junta Monetaria, Guatemala’s monetary policy board.
The RMVyM’s web address is rmvm.gob.gt, and its postal address is 11 Avenida 3-14, Zone 1, Guatemala City.
The Registry can issue rulings — on its own initiative or on request — ordering exchanges, brokers, issuers and commodity traders to bring their conduct into line with the law and its associated regulations. It can cancel a broker’s registration, which triggers the immediate cessation of that firm’s market activities, and it may apply to a court to enforce that cessation.
What the RMVyM cannot do is itself prosecute criminal conduct: it must refer suspected criminal breaches to the Public Prosecutor’s Office. Public securities offerings do not require prior administrative authorisation beyond registration with the Registry; registration means only that the information in the offering meets the statutory requirements, not that the Registry vouches for the issuer’s solvency.
What trades there
All trading — whether in the primary market, where securities are sold for the first time, or in the secondary market, where investors trade among themselves — is conducted through BVN’s electronic systems, and only licensed brokers may enter orders. The instruments on offer are: government treasury bonds (known as CERTIBONOS, certificates representing treasury bonds); short-term bank deposit certificates (CDPs, certificados de depósito a plazo); corporate debt securities including commercial paper and longer-dated bonds; and, occasionally, preference shares issued by private companies.
The exchange also hosts repos — short-term financing transactions in which a seller agrees to buy back the same securities at a set price after a fixed period, typically around a month — which allow banks and companies to lend cash to each other overnight or over short horizons.
BVN operates a single, undivided market; there is no separate junior board or SME tier akin to the AIM in London or the Mercado Alternativo in Peru. The exchange may, however, maintain a special international quotation system — the Sistema Internacional de Cotizaciones — through which securities listed on foreign markets can be accessed, though this segment is a gateway rather than a domestic listing tier.
Not published: BVN does not publish a named share index comparable to the S&P 500 or Mexico’s IPC. The exchange’s own Investor Centre (centrodelinversionista.com) publishes a yield curve for fixed-income instruments, but no equity index with a published methodology or rebalancing schedule exists, because the equity segment is not large enough to sustain one.
What it takes to list
To bring securities to BVN, the issuer — or its appointed broker — must submit to the exchange all documents required by the Ley del Mercado de Valores y Mercancías (the Securities and Commodities Market Law, Decree 34-96) and by the Reglamento para la Inscripción de Valores; the dossier covers legal, corporate and financial information, and an offering prospectus is one of the main compulsory documents. Audited financial statements are required for both debt and equity issues.
For debt securities, the issuer must also obtain a credit rating from either a rating agency registered with the RMVyM or an agency recognised by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Once the complete dossier is submitted, BVN’s Legal Department reviews each document and issues observations; the issuer must correct them before the exchange’s Emissions Committee does its own review. After BVN’s Board approves the offering, the RMVyM independently reviews the dossier, registers the offer, and only then does BVN admit the securities to trading.
Not published: the exchange’s listing-requirements page (bvnsa.com.gt/bvnsa/emisores_pasos_listar_valores_bvn.php) and the Reglamento Interno do not state a minimum paid-in capital figure, a minimum public float percentage, or a minimum track-record period in quetzal or dollar terms. The governing statute, Decree 34-96, sets no such numerical floors either; the standards appear to be set on a case-by-case basis by the Emissions Committee.
The registration fee charged by the RMVyM is capped by statute at 0.001% of the nominal value of the issue, per Article 16(d) of Decree 34-96.
What companies must tell you
Issuers listed at BVN are required under Article 29 of the exchange’s Reglamento Interno and under the Reglamento sobre Divulgación y Actualización de Información de Entidades Emisoras (the Disclosure and Update Regulation for Issuing Entities) to supply the exchange with ongoing financial and corporate information that BVN then publishes publicly. Financial statements must be audited, and all filings are made in Spanish; there is no obligation to provide an English translation.
Not published: the exchange’s issuer-obligations pages on bvnsa.com.gt and the Reglamento Interno (as retrieved) do not specify filing deadlines in calendar days after year-end, whether quarterly unaudited filings are required separately from annual audited ones, or whether the disclosures must follow IFRS or local Guatemalan accounting standards.
Not published: BVN’s public documents and the RMVyM’s legal framework pages (rmvm.gob.gt/marco-legal) do not set out a numerical threshold at which a shareholder must publicly disclose their stake — the major-shareholding disclosure threshold that many markets place at 5% or 10% — nor do they specify rules on related-party transactions or mandatory disclosure of board remuneration. The law, Decree 34-96, does require issuers to keep the exchange informed of material developments through the Buzón Bursátil (the exchange’s electronic disclosure box), but the precise list of triggering events and the deadline for filing them after the event occurs is contained in the exchange’s internal regulations, which are published in Spanish and have no authoritative English version.
How trading works
Not published: BVN’s website does not state specific opening and closing times for its electronic trading system in any publicly accessible page in either language. Trading is conducted entirely through licensed brokers using BVN’s electronic platform; there is no open-outcry floor.
Both primary-market placements and secondary-market trades are executed exclusively through BVN’s electronic systems by licensed broker firms. Guatemala observes standard Central American public holidays, giving the market roughly 248 to 252 trading days per year.
Not published: BVN’s published rules do not describe circuit-breaker mechanisms — automatic trading pauses triggered when a price moves too far too fast — nor do they specify price limits for individual securities or the types of order (limit, market, stop) that the electronic system accepts. There are no designated market makers — firms contractually obliged to post continuous buy and sell prices — for any security on the exchange.
Price formation for fixed-income instruments in the primary market follows an auction model in which broker-dealers submit bids; BVN calculates and publishes a yield curve from the weighted average of yields awarded in primary-market public auctions for each maturity date, covering both CDPs and CERTIBONOS.
How a trade is settled
The Central de Valores Nacional, S.A. (CVN) — Guatemala’s central securities depository, which began operations on 1 June 2011 — holds securities in custody on behalf of brokers and institutional participants, and is responsible for settling all trades executed at BVN.
Settlements run through CVN’s electronic settlement system (the Sistema Electrónico de Liquidaciones, or SEL), which handles electronic transfers of both securities and cash between broker accounts, eliminating the risk of physically moving paper certificates. Not published: BVN’s website and the CVN information page (bvnsa.com.gt/bvnsa/central_informacion.php) do not state a standard settlement cycle in calendar days (such as T+2, meaning money and securities change hands two working days after the trade).
Settlement can take place either as delivery-versus-payment — in which the exchange of cash and securities happens simultaneously, so neither party can be left without either its money or its shares — or as free delivery, in which the two legs of the transaction are settled independently. Securities are held under a collective deposit contract, meaning CVN acts as custodian without taking ownership of the securities; what is deposited stays separate from CVN’s own assets.
Investors hold their securities through their broker’s sub-account at CVN rather than in their own name directly, which is the standard arrangement for book-entry (dematerialised) securities.
Short selling, lending and margin
None of the three is meaningfully available at BVN. Short selling — borrowing a share and selling it, hoping to buy it back more cheaply later — is not provided for in the exchange’s published rules or in Decree 34-96, and the thin equity segment would make it unworkable in practice regardless.
Securities lending as a formal, documented product does not appear in any published BVN or RMVyM regulation. Trading on margin — using borrowed money to buy securities beyond what your cash permits — is not described in any published exchange rule; each broker negotiates credit terms with clients individually under general commercial law.
This matters for anyone trying to understand price behaviour. Without short sellers, there is no mechanism for bearish views to be expressed quickly in prices; without market makers, there are no continuous quotes.
The result is a market where prices can gap sharply when sellers appear, and where an instrument can show no traded price for extended periods. For a fixed-income instrument held to maturity that is exactly what most local investors intend, but it matters enormously to anyone expecting the liquidity of a developed market.
Can a foreigner buy here?
To invest, anyone — resident or foreign — must approach a licensed broker firm and open an account. The account-opening process requires completing Form CB-01 of the Intendencia de Verificación Especial of the Superintendencia de Bancos (the anti-money-laundering compliance unit of Guatemala’s banking supervisor), known as the “start of relationship” form, as well as signing the broker’s own client contract.
There is no requirement to register separately with the RMVyM or with the Banco de Guatemala as a precondition of investing, though the broker will perform standard know-your-customer identity checks on every client regardless of nationality.
A non-resident foreign investor’s dividend income from a Guatemalan source is subject to a 5% income-tax withholding, deducted at source. Capital gains on Guatemalan-source assets are taxed at a flat 10%.
Interest income received by a non-resident from a Guatemalan source carries a 10% withholding tax. Guatemala has no double-tax treaties in force, so these rates apply in full with no treaty relief.
Guatemala does not impose foreign-exchange controls, meaning that after-tax proceeds can be converted and repatriated freely. No Guatemalan company has a foreign-listed depositary receipt (ADR or GDR) programme through which shares could be bought outside the country; the easiest route remains opening an account with a local broker directly.
What it costs
The RMVyM registration fee for a new public offering is capped by Article 16(d) of Decree 34-96 at 0.001% of the nominal value of the issue, calculated on that nominal value. On a GTQ 10,000,000 (approximately US$1,310,000) bond issue, that would amount to GTQ 100 (approximately US$13).
This fee is charged by the regulator, not by BVN; BVN levies its own fees for admission and for the ongoing quotation of securities, but the specific quetzal amounts are not published on any publicly accessible page of bvnsa.com.gt or in the Reglamento Interno as retrieved.
Not published: BVN’s own listing fee schedule, annual maintenance fee, and transaction charge rate are not displayed publicly on bvnsa.com.gt or on rmvm.gob.gt. The exchange’s rules state that each broker negotiates its own commission with each client individually, so there is no standard exchange-wide brokerage tariff either.
Each broker operates its own commission structure, and the investor must agree that rate with the broker before trading begins. Guatemala levies a 3% stamp duty on most legal and commercial documents, but share transfers within a corporate structure are generally exempt; for exchange-traded transactions the applicable document-tax treatment depends on the specific instrument.
Where the prices are
BVN’s own Investor Centre (centrodelinversionista.com) publishes prospectuses, issuer financial information, and a live yield curve for fixed-income instruments; the data carries a disclaimer that BVN accepts no liability for its accuracy. The Investor Centre is in Spanish only.
The RMVyM publishes registration records and notices on rmvm.gob.gt, also in Spanish. No official, freely accessible English-language price feed exists for this exchange.
The international data vendors carry this market sparsely. EODHD lists the exchange under the suffix .GT and carries some security-level data, but coverage is thin and may not include all active instruments.
Bloomberg and Refinitiv carry selected Guatemalan fixed-income reference data, but screen coverage is not comprehensive. There is no official daily closing-price file published in a machine-readable format for public download.
The near-absence of English-language data is the main reason that reporting on individual Guatemalan issuers barely exists outside Guatemala: the instruments are real and the issuers substantial, but the information infrastructure that foreign analysts depend on is simply not there.
Liquidity, as we measure it
No daily price feed exists for this exchange — not from us, and not from the commercial data vendors. We have profiled 11 of the 17 issuers we track, each researched from the exchange's own filings rather than from a data feed. That absence is the reason these pages exist.
Sources
Bolsa de Valores Nacional — Steps to List Securities (bvnsa.com.gt): establishes the listing process, documentation requirements including audited accounts and credit ratings, and the two-stage BVN/RMVyM approval sequence.
Bolsa de Valores Nacional — Central de Valores Nacional information page (bvnsa.com.gt): establishes the role and structure of Guatemala’s central securities depository (CVN), the electronic settlement system (SEL), delivery-versus-payment mechanics, and the collective-deposit custody model.
Bolsa de Valores Nacional — Licensed Broker Directory (bvnsa.com.gt): lists all registered broker firms through which investors must route trades.
Bolsa de Valores Nacional — How to Invest (bvnsa.com.gt): describes the investor account-opening process, the CB-01 anti-money-laundering form requirement, broker commission negotiation, and primary and secondary market mechanics.
Registro del Mercado de Valores y Mercancías — Who We Are (rmvm.gob.gt): describes the RMVyM’s statutory powers, its role as a technical body within the Ministry of Economy, and the six-year presidential appointment of the Registrar under Decree 34-96.
Registro del Mercado de Valores y Mercancías — Legal Framework (rmvm.gob.gt): lists all primary and secondary legislation governing the securities market, including Decree 34-96 and its 2008 amendment (Decree 49-2008).
Ley del Mercado de Valores y Mercancías, Decreto 34-96 (rmvm.gob.gt): the primary statute governing the exchange, the RMVyM, broker licensing, public-offering registration, and the 0.001% registration fee cap.
Acuerdo Gubernativo 557-97 — Reglamento del Registro (bvnsa.com.gt): the executive regulation implementing Decree 34-96, covering the RMVyM’s arancel, agent bonds, and extrabursátil market rules.
UN Sustainable Stock Exchanges Initiative — BVNSA Profile (sseinitiative.org): confirms ownership structure (mutualised private company owned by brokers and independent shareholders) and that BVN is not itself a listed company.
PwC Tax Summaries — Guatemala Individual Income Determination (taxsummaries.pwc.com): establishes the 5% dividend withholding rate, 10% capital-gains rate and 10% interest withholding rate applicable to non-resident investors under Guatemalan income tax law.
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