Specific Features of Functioning of Exchanges as Components of the Market Infrastructure

The goal of the article lies in generalisation of functions of modern exchanges, analysis of specific features of the organisational and legal status of commodity and stock exchanges in Ukraine, detection of problems in exchange trade development and development of a set of measures for their solution. The article considers an exchange as a poly-functional institute that performs specific functions: organisation of regular trade with financial and tangible assets in the prescribed place and in accordance with the established rules; development of rules of exchange trade and their observance by all participants of the trade; guarantee of execution of the concluded transactions; detection, fixation and monitoring of current prices on exchange commodities. Comparison of the organisational and legal statuses of commodity and stock exchanges in Ukraine showed that stock exchanges have higher entrance barriers (organisational and legal form, minimal size of the authorised capital, order of use of profit, specific registration procedures and licensing of activity). It was found in the result of the study that underdevelopment of the exchange segment of trade in Ukraine, on the one hand, is caused by availability of system problems in the national economic system and, on the other hand, is an inhibitory factor of economic development. Measures on improvement of the state regulation of the exchange trade includes putting in order the organisational and legal status of exchanges, overcoming the existing fragmentariness of trade areas, development of mechanisms of guarantee of execution of the concluded exchange transactions and stimulation of exchanges to introduce modern electronic trade systems. The prospect of further studies in this direction is development of approaches to assessment of effectiveness and efficiency of exchange trade in Ukraine.