Belgian New Year’s Ceremony

On Thursday 17 January 2019, more than 550 guests took part in the traditional Belgian New Year’s Ceremony at SQUARE in Brussels. The evening started with a special keynote by Valdis Dombrovskis, Vice President for the Euro and Social Dialogue, also in charge of Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union.

He pointed out that Capital Markets Union is one of the flagship projects of the European Commission and that Europe needs a general single market of capital to strengthen the economic and monetary union.  

His speech was followed by a panel discussion on the current achievements and future initiatives of Capital Markets Union, with representatives from the Belgian and European financial ecosystem. All panelists agreed on the fact that building a single market of capital is essential for the European economy and that 2019 will be a challenging year as tangible progress still need to be made with the legislative proposals that are on the table.

Euronext Brussels CEO Vincent Van Dessel then came back on the most significant events of 2018 and outlined the Euronext Brussels projects for 2019.

Before the Awards Ceremony, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Alexander De Croo highlighted the transitioning of our economy and the creation of technological opportunities for all stakeholders. He stressed the fact that giving entrepreneurs access to financial means is essential to get things moving.

We ended the ceremony with our traditional awards, rewarding our best performing members and listed companies. This year’s winners are:

• BEL 20 Company of the year - argenx
• BEL Mid Company of the yea - Mithra
• BEL Small Company of the year - Global Graphics
• Equity Finance House of the year - ING
• Bond Finance House of the year - Landesbank Baden-Württemberg
• Cash Market Brokerage House of the year - Morgan Stanley International
• Cash Market Belgian Brokerage House of the year - KBC Securities
• Cash Market SME Liquidity Provider of the year - KBC Securities
• Derivatives Market Brokerage House of the year - BinckBank
• Derivatives Market Liquidity Provider of the year - Susquehanna International