PSE members to meet on new computer system

The Philippine Stock Exchange’s top officials will convene its members in a series of meetings to get their feedback on the still controversial plan to acquire a new computer system for its stock clearing and settlement transactions.

"Issues have been raised by some directors and trading participants and should be addressed. We propose this to be in caucus with members," PSE president Ernest Leung said in a circular.

He said that for the convenience of members in the two different locations, the Tektite Towers in Pasig and Ayala Towers in Makati, separate sessions will be held in these floors, with the Ayala caucus scheduled on the first week of December to be followed by the Tektite caucus a week later.

In its regular meeting last Sept. 25, the PSE board of directors gave the go-signal for the acquisition of a clearing and settlement (C&S) system, originally budgeted for $1.5 million but went down to between $700,000 to $800,000 upon the submission of proposals from bidding vendors.

"The decision was the culmination of almost 18 months of study and evaluation by the settlement committee, management and technical team, with the assistance of a consultant hired for the purpose and subsequently discussed and deliberated upon in several board meetings.

However, a group of broker-directors led by Roberto Coyiuto Jr. challenged the decision to purchase the computer system, citing several reasons, among them, that the purchase of the new hardware is not practical at this time given the current low trading volume, with no sign of any improvement in the market in the foreseeable future. They claimed the purchase would only contribute to the Exchange’s expense.

However, PSE settlement committee William Ang justified that the new system will reduce the transaction costs to the brokers and lower the break-even operating levels to the Securities Clearing Corporation of the Philippines (SCCP), a 51 percent PSE subsidiary.