PDex to offer fixed income investment products

The Philippine Dealing and Exchange Corp. (PDex) is preparing to offer fixed income investment products to the retail market by the second half of 2007.

This was announced by key PDex officials after a successful trading year in 2006 which saw transaction volume growing by almost 80 percent.

PDS Holding Group (PDS Group) president and chief executive officer Vicente Castillo said that the dynamic 2006 performance has institutionalized liquidity and market depth in the fixed income market.

"This liquidity means there is sufficient market depth, and together with our emphasis on governance and transparency, all these should portend to the retail investor being an active market participant," Castillo said. "The individual saver-investor should never be left out of the bigger picture."

This year, the group will be launching several products as a prelude to the launch of the Public Market trading system in the last quarter.

Meanwhile, total trading volume for government securities hit a record P787.4 billion last year, representing a 79.9 percent growth from P437.7 billion in 2005.

PDex president and chief operating officer Cesar Crisol said that 2006 was a challenging year.

"The numbers provide us with reference with which we can anchor both our efforts, and our optimism for the future. Our developmental efforts are not without its rewards," Crisol said.

Average daily volume increased by P924 million in 2006 over 2005. Quarterly volume was even more significant.

From a P1.8 billion daily average in the fourth quarter of 2005, PDex finished 2006 with a daily average trade volume of P5.6 billion.

Daily average trades rose to between 60 and 70 in the last semester of 2006, against 26 daily average trades in 2005.

Crisol said the appplication of the Straight-Through-Processing Delivery-Versus-Payment (STP-DVP) facility introduced in the third quarter of 2006 reduced the opearional risk that arises from recoding transaction details.