Six Swiss Exchange

The SIX Swiss Exchange was founded in 1995 through the merger of three different Swiss stock exchanges. The exchanges that merged to form what was then called the Verein Schweizerische Effektenbörse (known in English simply as The Swiss Exchange) were Geneva Stock Exchange, Basel Stock Exchange, and Zurich Stock Exchange.

Immediately upon its creation, The Swiss Exchange became the first-ever stock exchange to incorporate fully automatic trading and settlement systems. This, along with having centralised much of the trading infrastructure of Switzerland in one place, made the exchange revolutionary.

The Swiss Exchange became the SWX Swiss Exchange in 1999, and transitioned to being a publically limited company named SWX Swiss Exchange AG in 2002. After rejecting a merger with Deutsche Börse in 2004, the exchange eventually merged with the SIS Group and Telekurs in 2008 and was rebranded as the SIX Swiss Exchange.

The SIX Group operates a number of institutions in Switzerland, both financial and non-financial. Their group consists of both Swiss and non-Swiss members, and encompasses some 130 or so financial institutions around the world.

There are a variety of indices that track the SIX Swiss Exchange. The most influential of these are:

• The Swiss Market Index (SMI)
• The Swiss Performance Index (SPI)
• The Swiss Leader Index (SLI)
• The Swiss Bond Index (SBI)
• The Swiss Average Rate Overnight (SARON)

Of these, the blue-chip Swiss Market Index is the most commonly used., It tracks the performance of 20 of the largest and most liquid stocks listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange.