Ukrainian Exchange

The Ukrainian Exchange was an electronic securities and derivatives exchange that operated in Kyiv from 2009 until 2019. It was founded and majority-owned by Russia's RTS Stock Exchange, which contributed the trading technology and initial market-making systems. The exchange was initially chaired by Oleg Tkachenko and later saw its ownership shift after Moscow Exchange acquired RTS in 2011, though the Ukrainian entity remained legally separate.

In January 2019, the National Securities and Stock Market Commission of Ukraine revoked the exchange's license, citing trading volumes that had fallen below the regulatory threshold required to maintain stock exchange status. The decision followed several years of declining market share after competing venues, particularly the PFTS and later the Perspective Stock Exchange, captured the majority of onshore equity trading volume.

Yes. The exchange employed a central counterparty clearing model from its launch, which was a structural differentiator in the Ukrainian market at the time. This removed bilateral settlement risk between trading members and placed it on the exchange itself, though the practical effectiveness depended on the capital adequacy of the clearing fund during periods of market stress.

The Ukrainian Exchange was launched in 2009 as a direct electronic-trading competitor to the incumbent PFTS Ukraine Stock Exchange, which had operated since 1996 and originally ran on a quote-driven, telephone-based model. The Ukrainian Exchange captured the majority of equity order-book trading volume within its first two years of operation, but PFTS retained significant market share in government bond trading and remained the index provider for the widely-cited PFTS Index.

Following the January 2019 license revocation, the legal entity did not formally liquidate immediately but ceased all exchange operations. Its remaining technological assets and market data intellectual property have no publicly disclosed buyer or successor venue. The regulatory action effectively marked the end of the exchange as a going concern.