The Nasdaq Iceland, formerly known as the Iceland Stock Exchange (XICE) ( is, Kauphöll Íslands), is a stock exchange located in Iceland. It was established in 1985 as a joint venture of several banks and brokerage firms on the initiative of the

central bank A central bank, reserve bank, or monetary authority is an institution that manages the currency and monetary policy of a country or monetary union, and oversees their commercial banking system. In contrast to a commercial bank, a central b ...

. Trading began in 1986 in Icelandic

government bond A government bond or sovereign bond is a form of bond issued by a government to support public spending. It generally includes a commitment to pay periodic interest, called coupon payments'','' and to repay the face value on the maturity dat ...

s, and trading in

equities In finance, stock (also capital stock) consists of all the shares by which ownership of a corporation or company is divided.Longman Business English Dictionary: "stock - ''especially AmE'' one of the shares into which ownership of a company ...

began in 1991. Equities trading increased rapidly thereafter. A wide variety of firms are currently listed on the exchange, including firms in retail, fishing, transportation, banks, insurance and numerous other areas. Because of the small size of the Icelandic economy and the low cost of public listing, many of the companies traded on the XICE are relatively small and are relatively illiquid. All domestic trading of Icelandic bonds, equities and mutual funds takes place on the XICE. Bonds and equities are regularly traded, though the liquidity is small in comparison with other exchanges. No mutual funds are currently listed on the market. Since its founding, the XICE has used various electronic systems. Since 2000, it has used the SAXESS system of the

NOREX In 1997, the Copenhagen Stock Exchange and the Stockholm Stock Exchange initiated formalized cooperation through NOREX, with the purpose of establishing a joint Nordic securities market. At the beginning of 1998, the two exchanges established a jo ...

alliance, which allows for the cross-listing of stocks on Nordic stock exchanges. No foreign company lists directly on the XICE, as the small size and illiquidity of the market makes such a move redundant. Conversely, few Icelandic firms have listed abroad, including

DeCODE Decoding or decode may refer to: is the process of converting code into plain text or any format that is useful for subsequent processes. Science and technology * Decoding, the reverse of encoding * Parsing, in computer science * Digital-to-analog ...

. Faroese bonds were listed on behalf of Virðisbrævamarknaður Føroya in November 2003, and since December 2007 four Faroese equities have been listed on the OMX Nordic Exchange in Iceland. Since 1 January 1999, the XICE has operated as a private company, owned by the listed companies (29%), member firms (29%), the

Central Bank of Iceland The Central Bank of Iceland ( is, Seðlabanki Íslands) is the central bank or reserve bank of Iceland. It has served in this capacity since 1961, when it was created by an act of the Alþingi out of the central banking department of Landsbank ...

(16%), pension funds (13%) and the Association of Small Investors (13%). Páll Harðarson is the current president of the stock exchange. XICE agreed to be taken over by larger rival OMX Nordic Exchange on 19 September 2006. On 6 October 2008, the Financial Supervisory Authority decided to temporarily suspend trading on regulated market financial instruments issued by

Glitnir Forseti (Old Norse "the presiding one", "president" in modern Icelandic and Faroese) is the god of justice and reconciliation in Norse mythology. He is generally identified with Fosite, a god of the Frisians. Name Grimm took ''Forseti'', "''pr ...

Kaupthing Bank Kaupthing Bank ( is, Kaupþing banki; ) was a major international Icelandic bank, headquartered in Reykjavík, Iceland. It was taken over by the Icelandic government during the 2008–2011 Icelandic financial crisis and the domestic Icelandic ...

Landsbanki Landsbanki (literally "national bank"), also commonly known as Landsbankinn (literally "the national bank") which is now the name of the current rebuilt bank (here called "New Landsbanki"), was one of the largest Icelandic commercial banks that f ...

, Straumur Investment Bank, Spron and Exista. When the exchange reopened on 14 October, the stock index fell by 76%. After having reached its pre-recession peak of 3495.28 on the 20th of July 2007, the OMX Iceland All-Shares Index collapsed to its bottom at 167.77 on April 8, 2009, a fall of 95.2% from top to bottom. Nine years later, the index was yet to reach 670. As of June 2022, the OMX Iceland All-Shares Index is 2,291.13

List of companies on the XICE

The following is a complete list of companies which are listed on the Iceland Stock Exchange (as of June 25, 2021), and currency in which they trade.
Retrieved 25.06.2021 * Arion banki, ISK * Brim, ISK *

Eik fasteignafélag Eik or EIK may refer to: People * Arild Eik (1943–2009), Norwegian aid worker and diplomat Places * Eik, Agder, a village in Kristiansand municipality in Agder county, Norway * Eik, Rogaland, a village in Lund municipality in Rogaland c ...

, ISK *

Eimskipafélag Íslands Eimskipafélag Íslands hf. is an international shipping company with 55 offices in 20 countries and four continents; Europe, North America, South America and Asia. Eimskip specializes in worldwide freight forwarding services with focus on frozen ...

, ISK * Festi, ISK *

Hagar Hagar, of uncertain origin; ar, هَاجَر, Hājar; grc, Ἁγάρ, Hagár; la, Agar is a biblical woman. According to the Book of Genesis, she was an Egyptian slave, a handmaiden of Sarah (then known as ''Sarai''), whom Sarah gave to h ...

, ISK * Iceland Seafood International, ISK *

Icelandair Group Icelandair Group hf. is an Icelandic travel industry corporation, the owner and holding company of the airline Icelandair and several other travel industry companies in Iceland. The group's headquarters are at Reykjavík Airport in Reykjavík. ...

, ISK * Kvika banki, ISK *

Íslandsbanki Íslandsbanki is an Icelandic bank with roots tracing back to 1875, formerly being the domestic part of Glitnir banki hf., but on 15 October 2008 being split from the bankrupt Glitnir and reestablished into a new independent bank. The sole opera ...

, ISK *

Marel Marel is a multi-national food processing company based in Iceland. The company manufactures and provides equipment, systems, software and services to the poultry, meat and fish processing industries. Marel is a large manufacturer of food processi ...

, ISK * Nova, ISK *

Origo Origo may refer to: * ''Origo'' (album), an album by the band Burst * ''Origo'' (moth), a genus of moth in the family Gelechiidae * Origo (pragmatics), a concept in pragmatics * "Origo" (song), the Hungarian representative for the Eurovision Song C ...

, ISK * Reginn, ISK * Reitir fasteignafélag, ISK * Sjóvá-Almennar tryggingar, ISK * Skeljungur, ISK * Síldarvinnslan, ISK *

Síminn Síminn hf. (Iceland Telecom), previously named ''Landssíminn'' and ''Póstur og Sími,'' is an Icelandic telecommunications company. It offers communication services for both private and corporate clients, including mobile (2G/3G/4G/5G), landline ...

, ISK * Sýn, ISK * Vátryggingafélag Íslands, ISK * Ölgerðin, ISK

References

External links

Official website
{{Authority control Financial services companies established in 1985 Companies of Iceland Stock exchanges in Europe

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

Nasdaq Nordic 1985 establishments in Iceland

List of companies on the XICE

See also

References

External links