Mexico's BIVA exchange to launch in March

After five years in the works, Mexico's second stock exchange is set to launch operations in the last week of March, focusing on giving a wider variety of businesses accessibility to equity markets.

The exchange, named the Bolsa Institucional de Valores (BIVA), will be the first exchange to compete with the existing BMV in 42 years.

The BIVA finally won regulatory approval to prepare for launch in August, and the exchange now only needs the final green light from financial sector regulator (CNBV) to begin trading.

"We expect to see the start of operations at the end of March," said Fernando Pérez, the BIVA's general director, in an interview with local daily El Universal, who added that the CNBV notification is simply part of the formal process.

Pérez said they are awaiting a CNBV inspection of operations in early February, adding that their team is in the process of conducting extensive tests on advanced technology to be used with the exchange.

The new exchange is backed by the Nasdaq X-stream trading system, used by more than 70% of the world's stock exchanges.

Originally slated to launch in January, BIVA president Santiago Urquiza told local newspaper El Financiero that the opening has seen a number of delays, as BIVA representatives work to coordinate operations with the BMV.

The BIVA's founding company, Cencor, a Mexican developer of financial infrastructure technology, first announced plans to create the exchange in February 2013 and has since worked with the finance ministry and the CNBV to develop the project, filing the official application to begin operations in October 2015.