In this article, Cees Vermaas, CEO of The International Stock Exchange (TISE), explores PISCES and TISE's own offering in the sector, TISE Private Markets, with Hannah Brenton, Senior Finance Reporter at POLITICO for its Morning Financial Services UK (MFS UK) daily newsletter.

PISCES IS GREAT, BUT WHAT ABOUT US, ASKS TISE: Guernsey-based stock exchange TISE wants the government to take a look at its offering, rather than Rachel Reeves’ plans for the PISCES platform which, if developed, would allow investors to invest in private companies.

TISE to meet you: TISE, or The International Stock Exchange, set up in Guernsey in 1998 and has since 2023 offered its TISE Private Markets online platform, which provides companies not publicly listed to buy and sell their own shares. That’s already up and running, unlike PISCES, although Reeves has committed to legislate to establish it by May. The Financial Conduct Authority kicked off its plans to get PISCES off the ground with a consultation in mid-December.

In the mail: Cees Vermaas, chief executive of TISE, sent City Minister Emma Reynolds a letter sent late last month requesting a meeting to showcase its wares. The Treasury declined to comment.

Going underground: But Vermaas told MFS U.K. there hasn’t been any “concrete kind of delivery” of PISCES yet. “We wonder if PISCES … when it’s going to deliver,” he said. And TISE is on a public awareness spree, with MFS U.K. spotting adverts for the exchange on screens alongside the escalators at Liverpool Street Station underground over the weekend.

In the meantime: TISE wants to get the message across that its model is better placed to respond to private investment demands than PISCES. “In the U.K., there are over 19,000 private companies with more than 100 employees. They have a share structure. They have a requirement to transfer ownership or to get new investors on board, and they don’t really have the capability to do so, and the only two potential opportunities they have is either to put themselves in the hands of a private equity party or to go to an exchange. And that is just very expensive, and you’re out of control in both situations. We think we are filling the [gap] with the platform,” Vermaas told MFS U.K.

Plenty of fish: The government looks set to plow ahead with PISCES anyway. The FCA, which is consulting on developing PISCES via its sandbox approach, described the platform as a “world-leading innovation.” Responses to its consultation close Feb. 17, but the industry so far seems supportive. UK Finance and AFME told the government in response to its legislative proposals that they are supportive and welcome the collaborative approach on the “ambitious initiative.”

This article was originally published on 10 February 2025 by POLITICO and is available from the website here.

A PDF copy of the MFS UK newsletter is available here.