Long-standing Board Member of Börse Berlin Retires
After around 30 years, Dr. Jörg Walter, one of Germany's longest serving stock exchange directors, is retiring. As the initiator of numerous innovations, Walter led the capital stock exchange into the digital, technology-driven modern era of stock exchange trading. His farewell marks the end of an era in Berlin.
Berlin was a divided city and on the trading floor stock brokers and traders of the banks still met face to face when Dr. Jörg Walter was appointed as syndicus of the Berlin Stock Exchange in December 1988. In March 1991, Walter became managing director and finally, in June 2000, also board member of Börse Berlin AG as part of the restructuring of Börse Berlin. At that time Berlin had already become a hip capital and stock exchange trading had become digital.
With Jörg Walter at the helm, the Berlin trading centre became a pioneer in many respects. From 1991 the trading hours were successively extended. With the transformation of Börse Berlin into the first completely location-independent computer exchange, international banks and brokers could be won as trading participants via remote order books. International shares have been traded at favorable conditions since 2000. From 2001, Börse Berlin opened the broker order books free of charge for private investors. In 2002, trading in mutual funds began.
Börse Berlin also set an example when it came to electronic trading. In 2003, NASDAQ Germany was launched in cooperation with the Bremen Stock Exchange. "Not all initiatives were successful," states Walter, "but Börse Berlin always stayed abreast of the times in an era of great upheaval and was able to establish itself as the stock exchange for international stocks and bonds. The merger with Tradegate Exchange will strengthen its market position towards a successful future".
The stock exchanges Tradegate Exchange (EUR 103 bn), Börse Berlin (EUR 4.7 bn) and Equiduct (EUR 41.7 bn) together achieved a trading volume of EUR 149 bn in 2018, making them, according to their estimates, the leaders in securities trading with private investors.
Contact: Petra Greif, petra.greif@boerse-berlin.de , +49 (0)30 311091 29