BBV began operations in 1989,[1] offering trading of equities, indexes, gold, and local commodities.

[2] The President of the Confederation of Private Employers of Bolivia (CEPB), Marcelo Pérez Monasterios (later the Bolivian ambassador to the United Kingdom[3]), called for a meeting to designate a commission to help establish the stock exchange, and the project launched on April 19, 1979, under the name Bolsa Boliviana de Valores (Bolivian Stock Exchange).

[4] Upon establishment, the entity's first General Board of Shareholders approved statutes of the society and appointed Don Ernesto Wende Frankel as its first director.

The board was responsible for executing the necessary formalities to obtain legal status, including approval of the statutes from the National Commission of Values, in compliance with the Code of Trade.

[citation needed] Between 1982 and 1985, economic conditions were not conducive to activation of trading on the Bolivian Stock Exchange.