The JSE aimed to, in future, table a roadmap to ensure it makes sustainable business adjustments, after examining options to ease the impact of economic burdens on its pressurised clients, CEO Nicky Newton-King said this week.

Speaking at the firm’s financial results presentation on Wednesday evening, she noted that the JSE was examining and developing multiple strategies that could result in a “win-win” for the stock exchange and its clients.

The JSE was investigating developing and changing the listing requirements; the possible development of an over-the-counter (OTC) clearing house; replacement of its back-office services (BDA); the finalisation of a way forward in the group’s equity market business model; and revisiting the cost of conducting business, she said.

The JSE would, in the short term, deliver various short-term adjustments to allow for the immediate easing of economic burdens, while a long-term model was sought.

JSE chairperson Humphrey Borkum commented that many of the JSE’s clients were “under water” and feeling the increasing cost pressures of a strained economy, despite indications that the economy was recovering well.

Newton-King said the extensive listing requirements, taking into account the Companies Act and the account regulatory environment, would undergo changes during the year to increase trade and enable the development of new products.

The stock exchange aimed to reduce the extensive listing requirements by re-examining “every line of requirement”, while examining ways of decreasing its transaction costs.

Further, the JSE was “on the tail end” of deciding whether to pursue the establishment of a local OTC clearing house, which, should it go ahead, would be initiated early next year.

The next year would see the JSE embarking on an automation programme for client interaction, which would “take the hassle” out of compliance and deliver greater revenue potential.

The company further aimed to re-examine the BDA and the equity market, but noted that no decisions had been made as yet.

The BDA would remain in place until at least December 2015.

“We will make an announcement shortly as to what has been decided,” she said, adding that a roadmap, outlining what the JSE needed to do to ensure sustainable adjustments, would be published following the group’s decision on the clearing house.