The Role of Small Stock Exchanges in an Integrated Europe - the Case of Sweden^**This paper is based on the presentation given to the Swedish- Austrian symposium on capital markets in Vienna, March 14, 1991.

The huge changes in financial markets also hit the stock exchanges. Investors and issuers got choosier, competition became stronger. The author defines some decisive factors for stock exchanges, amongst them liquidity of the market, issuance costs/fees and transaction costs. In an effort to meet the needs of modern financial markets the Stockholm Fondbors embarked upon an extensive modernisation programme including an integrated order routing and automated matching system. Sweden now aims towards the development of a Nordic market where the Stockholm Stock Exchange could serve as a cornerstone.