NeXii is proud to announce that it has formally launched its European feasibility study as part of its Commitment to Action made at the Clinton Global Initiative 2010 meeting last month. The NeXii European feasibility study has commenced with NeXii’s local partner in France, Groupe SOS and will cover all European Union countries in the first phase of research. Already numerous stakeholders in the impact capital markets in Europe (analysts, fund managers, ratings agencies, social enterprises and financial institutions) have engaged with the process and are contributing their insight into informing the nature of the NeXii European platform to meet the specific needs and regulatory constraints of countries in the region. You can see more at www.NeXiiFrance.com.

This second feasibility study follows the completion in September of a similar successful study conducted in South Africa with the support of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, the Business Trust and NeXii’s majority shareholder, GreaterGood South Africa Trust – operators of the South African Social Investment Exchange (SASIX.com) and Cadiz holdings. The South African study gave a clear understanding of what stakeholders engaged in accessing or placing impact capital required and has resulted in a clear business plan for implementation in South Africa.

NeXii works with its partners to develop procedures and priorities for effective and appropriate regional and country based platforms; standards for listing based on mutual recognition and comparability and mechanisms for sharing information on deals, fund managers, investment advisors and social enterprises. NeXii has defined a five stage local partner development process which is a critical component of field building and essential to understanding what is needed, wanted and possible within each country to maintain regulatory compliance. Through this process NeXii develops and draws upon the local presence and expertise of independent members around the world in a federated alliance model and provides an overarching aggregating role as a meta “star alliance” style platform. “We are delighted with the partnership we have established” said Nicolas Hazard, deputy director of Groupe SOS. “The initial response in France has been tremendous and we look forward to building on that by understanding the specific requirements and challenges of this market not only in France but also in broader Europe”.

“Indeed, the challenge is responding to the individual regulatory requirements of each country whilst establishing relevant payment and settlement processes that are globally applicable or locally permissible,” commented Tamzin Ractcliffe, Founder and Chief Executive of NeXii. “That is a challenge worth addressing when weighted against the enormous benefits of providing a multilateral impact capital system that promotes cross border capital flows – for good. Partnering with local members provide critical windows into specific local issues and impact investment opportunities sourced in–country and listed through both local impact investment exchanges or online trading platforms that meet country based regulatory frameworks whilst also enabling cross-border investment through global marketing and compliance standards.”

Overall this enables NeXii to create a centralised platform aggregating information on investment opportunities but draws upon and links to country compliant transaction mechanisms through intermediation and related support services.

Modelled in this way we believe NeXii Global provides the best probability of delivering a worldwide impact investing exchange based model that can independently meet local regulatory requirements within member countries whilst enabling global capital flows to happen most efficiently.

“Globally NeXii has already accomplished several objectives,” Ms Ratcliffe said. “Since convening a group of interested organisations and thought partners in Bellagio in February 2009, NeXii has been catalytic in the instigation of the Kenya Social Investing Exchange (KSIX), the Impact Investing Exchange, Asia and the Social Ventures Exchange in Toronto. It has also developed the platform for the UNDP’s Special Unit for South-South Cooperation and SI Manager, a due diligence and impact reporting management information systems for investors to manage their portfolios and track impact.”

If you are interested in participating in any regional feasibility study or mapping process, or partnering with NeXii to lead a country process, please contact Tamzin@NeXii.com