 | |
 The Marquis building, housing the Brussels Stock Exchange (BSE) | |
| Type | Stock exchange |
|---|---|
| Location | Brussels,Belgium |
| Founded | 8 July 1801; 224 years ago (1801-07-08) |
| Owner | Euronext |
| Key people | Vincent Van Dessel (CEO) |
| Currency | EUR |
| No. of listings | 142[1] |
| Indices | BEL 20 |
| Website | euronext.com/brussels |
TheBrussels Stock Exchange (French:Bourse de Bruxelles[buʁsdəbʁysɛl];Dutch:Beurs van Brussel[ˈbøːrsfɑmˈbrʏsəl]), abbreviated toBSE, is a stock exchange founded inBrussels, Belgium, by decree ofNapoleon in 1801. In 2000, the BSE merged with theAmsterdam,Lisbon andParis stock exchanges intoEuronext, renaming the BSEEuronext Brussels. The benchmarkstock market index on the BSE is theBEL 20.
The former Brussels Stock Exchange building, known as theBourse Palace (French:Palais de la Bourse; Dutch:Beurspaleis) and usually shortened tola Bourse (in French) orde Beurs (in Dutch), is located on thePlace de la Bourse/Beursplein along theBoulevard Anspach/Anspachlaan. The BSE is now headquartered in the Marquis building. It can be accessed fromBrussels-Central railway station.
The Brussels Stock Exchange (French:Bourse de Commerce de Bruxelles) was created in 1801 by decree ofNapoleon. TheFrench government at the time designated the formerAugustinian monastery on theRue Fossé aux Loups/Wolvengracht as the venue for this exchange. After the monastery buildings were sold, meetings were allowed to be held in theTheatre of La Monnaie, but when the theatre was reopened forperforming arts in 1820, thestockbrokers rented a house on theRue Guillaume/Willemstraat (today'sRue Léopold/Leopoldstraat).[2] From 1858, a time when it experienced considerable development following the country's economic and industrial growth, the cramped and unsanitary conditions of the various premises led the business community to demand, from the municipal authorities, the erection ofa new stock exchange (see below).[3]
On the night of 29 November 1990, a fire broke out in one of thestockbrokers' cabins on the ground floor of the Stock Exchange building, causing a lot of damage.[4] As a result, the BSE risked losing its financial activities and its reason for existence. Though the building was neatly restored, automation and acquisitions were already bringing an end to old market practices. In July 1996, all market floor activities disappeared. That year, the cash market was fully digitalised and the daily meeting of stockbrokers andtraders therefore became redundant.[5][6]
In 1999, a first merger took place with CIK and BELFOX (BELgian Futures and Options Exchange). On 22 September 2000, the BSE merged again withParis Bourse and theAmsterdam Stock Exchange to formEuronext, the first pan-European exchange forequities andderivatives, with common trading and clearing of all products, and was renamedEuronext Brussels.[7][5] In 2015, this company moved away from the Stock Exchange building, which had become too large, after the lease was broken by theCity of Brussels in 2012. It now has its headquarters in the Marquis building.[8][9]
![[icon]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aWiki_letter_w_cropped.svg) | This sectionneeds expansion. You can help byadding missing information.(November 2025) |
Euronext Brussels calculates a family of indices. TheBEL 20 is the exchange'sbenchmark, disseminated inreal time.[10] Other indices include the BEL Mid,[11] Bel-Small,[12] and BAS indexes.[13]
The former Brussels Stock Exchange building is officially called thePalais de la Bourse in French or theBeurspaleis in Dutch (or simplyla Bourse/de Beurs, respectively), meaning "Stock Exchange Palace". In English, the building does not have a distinct name, though it is usually called the Bourse Palace, or simply the Bourse.[14][15] It is located on theBoulevard Anspach/Anspachlaan, and is the namesake of thePlace de la Bourse/Beursplein, which is, after theGrand-Place/Grote Markt, the second most important square in Brussels.
Designed by the architectLéon-Pierre Suys, in aneclectic style mixing borrowings fromneo-Renaissance andSecond Empire architecture, the building was erected from 1868 to 1873 on the site of the former Butter Market, itself built over the remains of the 13th-centuryRecolletsFranciscan convent.[16][17][18] It has an abundance of ornaments and sculptures, created by famous artists, including the brothers Jacques andJoseph Jacquet,Guillaume de Groot, the French sculptorAlbert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse and his then-assistantAuguste Rodin.[3][19][20]
Media related toEuronext Brussels at Wikimedia Commons| Markets | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| National listing venues | |||||
| Indices |
| ||||
| Joint ventures | |||||
50°50′50″N4°21′32″E / 50.84722°N 4.35889°E /50.84722; 4.35889
