Originally one of the oldest stock exchanges in Germany, BER was founded in 1685. The Berlin Stock exchange merged with Borse Bremen in 2003, and the new version is called the Borse Berlin-Bremen. The exchange eventually adopted Equiduct Trading, which allows it to trade more foreign stocks and expand its product offerings. The BER lists over 6,000 U.S. companies, which has created a fair amount of controversy within the exchange. This controversy was further fueled by the fact that over a thousand of these companies were listed without anyone's permission.