Open Market (Regulated Unofficial Market)

Market Segments by German Law

In its early days, trading on the Regulated Unofficial Market used to take place virtually on the doorstep of the stock exchange building. Everything that was not included in official exchange trading changed hands here. Today, the Regulated Unofficial Market – other than the Official Market and the Regulated Market – is a market segment under private law, but also represents a market organized by the stock exchange.

Open Market is not an organized market in the sense of the German Securities Trading Act (WpHG – Wertpapierhandelsgesetz). For issuing companies, the Open Market admission criteria are less strict than those for the two EU-regulated segments; Official Market and Regulated Market. Moreover, there are no follow-up obligations.

The Regulated Unofficial Market was repositioned as Open Market in October 2005.

Investors in this market segment must be aware that there is less information available on the respective companies. In contrast to the Official Market and the Regulated Market, issuers are not required to publish a prospectus featuring important company information. Furthermore, they are not obliged to publish ad-hoc announcements.

In the Open Market at FWB® Frankfurter Wertpapierbörse (the Frankfurt Stock Exchange), German and foreign shares, fixed-income securities of German and foreign issuers are tradable. Shares from 60 countries are included in trading. Structured products such as certificates, warrants or reverse convertibles can be listed in the Regulated Market (operated by Scoach) or in the Scoach Open Market.