About Us

The QCA is a highly regarded, not-for-profit organisation that was formed exclusively to represent the interests of small and mid-cap quoted companies. These are those companies outside the FTSE 350 listed on the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange together with those quoted on AIM and PLUS markets.

Our objective is to promote the interests of the small and mid-cap quoted company sector by:

• Lobbying Government, Brussels and other regulators to reduce the costly and time consuming burden of regulation, which falls disproportionately on the small and mid-cap quoted community. This work is done primarily by our technical committees.
• Promoting the small and mid-cap quoted company sector, and taking steps to increase investor interest and improve shareholder liquidity. This is done by our technical committees and press contacts.
• Educating companies in the sector about best practice in areas such as corporate governance and investor relations. This is facilitated through our events and publications.
• Providing a forum for small and mid-cap quoted company directors to network and discuss solutions to topical issues with their peers, sector professionals and influential City figures via our events programmes.

We are committed to the continuance of vibrant capital markets for quoted companies and believe that the sector has a vital part to play in determining the health of the UK economy in the future.

For more on the QCA and our successes, click here to download our flyer (pdf).

Our History

The Quoted Companies Alliance (QCA) was formed in 1992 as a reaction to the abolition of the Unlisted Securities Market (USM). A group of SQC advisors formed The City Group for Smaller Companies (CISCO) to lobby the London Stock Exchange to introduce a junior market that could be used for entrepreneurial companies to raise equity funding, without the need to undertake the costly and time consuming requirements of a Main Market listing. This pressure resulted in our first major win - the establishment of the Alternative Investment Market (AIM). In 2000, CISCO changed its name to the The Quoted Companies Alliance (QCA).

The QCA is a founding member of EuropeanIssuers, a pan-European organisation representing the interests of publicly quoted companies, with a secretariat in Brussels. The QCA is a board member and a key participant of its Smaller Issuers Committee. Being part of EuropeanIssuers ensures that the QCA has an early influence in Brussels, as many UK regulations are now created there.