Trading on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE) will kick off via the new Xetra trading platform on June 16 (Monday) after it emerged that Dimana Rankiva, deputy chairwoman of the Financial Supervision Commission (FSC), has issued a partial approval of BSE's Rules and Regulations.

In view of the introduction of the new platform no trading sessions will be held on BSE on June 12 and 13, the board of directors of the bourse decided on June 2.

It was still unclear earlier today as to whether the launch of the new trading platform would not be postponed for a later date. Doubts were raised after the FSC delayed its approval of the changes to BSE's Rules and Regulations.

We stuck to the schedule for the implementation of the Xetra and I hope that the launch of the new trading platform will be in effect by mid-June, Bistra Ilkova, executive director of BSE, said yesterday.

The project for changes to BSE's Rules and Regulations was completed as early as March, Ilkova said. The changes were discussed in detail on April 21 at an expert meeting organized by the FSC. BSE's managerial team took into consideration FSC's remarks, as well as the recommendations of various associations and the Board of Directors of the bourse adopted the final version on May 8, Ilkova added.