Date | Event |
May 2001 | Safex and JSE members agree to buyout of Safex by JSE Securities Exchange. Effective date of transaction to be 1 July 2001. The JSE agrees to retain the Safex branding and creates two divisions - Safex Financial Derivatives and Safex Agricultural Derivatives. |
August 2000 | Individual Equities contract listed has increased to 49. |
July 2000 | New Government Bond Index launched (GOVI). |
February 1999 | The Individual Equity Options are replaced with twelve Individual Equity Futures and Options on the futures. Twelve IEF's listed. |
March 1998 | Options introduced on agricultural products. |
September 1997 | Individual equity options introduced on the six largest equity counters. |
January 1997 | Open interest exceeds 1 million contracts. |
May 1996 | Introduction of fully automated trading through a specifically designed system that was written in South Africa. |
January 1995 | Safex Agricultural Derivatives Division opened. |
December 1993 | Volumes exceed 1 million per month for the first time. Open interest is over 500,000 contracts. |
January 1993 | Monthly volumes exceed 200,000. Open interest exceeds 100,000 contracts. |
October 1992 | Options-on-futures launched together with a world- class, portfolio-scanning- type margining system. |
June 1992 | Monthly volumes start consistently exceeding 100,000 contracts. |
October 1991 | Permission received from the South African Reserve Bank for non-residents to participate on Safex via the Financial Rand system. |
August 1990 | Enabling legislation (the Financial Markets Control Act, 1990) is enacted and Safex is officially licensed as a derivatives exchange. Officially opened on 10 August 1990 by the Minister of Finance. Monthly volumes are approximately 60,000 contracts, with 10,000 open interest. |
April 1990 | Safcom takes over operation of the informal futures market from RMB. Futures contracts are available on equity indices, long bonds and money market products. |
September 1988 | Twenty-one banks and financial institutions meet and establish the South African Futures Exchange (Safex) and the Safex Clearing Company (Safcom). |
April 1987 | Rand Merchant Bank Limited (RMB) start 5 trading "futures" contracts on various equity indices and long bonds. RMB is the exchange, clearing house and only market maker. |