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BECAUSE
the facilities of the Philippine Dealing and Exchange
Corp. (PDEX) are so expensive, thrift banks have started
talking with a mixed group of investors willing to set
up an alternative trading platform by which securities
trades may happen.
And by
the looks of it, the more affordable exchange may yet be
built given that the Securities and Exchange Commission
(SEC) has declared the plan free from possible legal
complications in the future.
“It is
actually being considered and if there is a meeting of
requirements, it can happen,” Philippine Savings Bank
president Pascual M. Garcia III told reporters on
Wednesday. Pascual is the Chamber of Thrift Banks vice
president.
According to him, a group of thrift banks is seriously
looking at alternative platforms being offered by a
mixed group of domestic, as well as foreign technology
providers that would allow them to do securities trade
and other services for clients without paying an arm and
a leg for it.
The CTB
had earlier urged PDEX to rethink its trading fees and
charges, as well as its other impositions that tend to
push securities costs higher than warranted—only to be
told no one was forcing anybody to be a PDEX member in
order to execute trades.
According to Garcia, the alternative platform may yet
see the light of day provided it gets recognized as a
self-regulatory organization as provided by law.
And,
they may not have to build a complex corporate animal to
get the required cost considerations they have in mind:
“We don’t have to build it ourselves. We only need to
tie up with the technology providers.”
He said
the SEC told them they can be part of an SRO that was so
recognized and accredited.
“SEC
chairman Fe Barin clarified to us no one was compelled
to be a member of any particular SRO,” Garcia said.
He also
said the one possible factor that could throw a monkey
wrench into the plan was the price of the technology
that, according to him, was Internet- or web-based in
this case.
As to
the question of volume or the economic scale of the
initial trades making the proposition attactive: “It
should not be very big but it’s a start.”
The
CTB’s core issues against PDEX center on its schedule of
fees based on the volume of securities to be traded in
its platform, plus all other fees and charges—these all
add up to an unacceptable level.
Garcia
said the web-based technology under consideration was
definitely cheaper than that provided at present by PDEX,
and this has forced the small banks to seriously
evaluate their merits. |
