PSE rolls out surveillance system

MANILA, Philippines - Aiming to develop a culture of transparency and integrity, the Philippine Stock Exchange rolled out yesterday a modern, state-of-the art surveillance system designed to proactively and rapidly identify abnormal trading behaviors.

Developed by the Korea Stock Exchange, the system, called Total Market Surveillance (TMS), is intended to beef up the surveillance capability of the PSE’s Capital Markets Integrity Corp. (CMIC) given the current fast paced, electronic trading environment.

CMIC president Antonio Garcia Jr. said the TMS will enable the PSE to conduct further investigations and crack down on price manipulation and other illegal or unregulated trading prices. The system is equipped to monitor at least one million orders/trades per day.

The system takes a real-time data feed directly from the exchange’s trading engine, processes it in real time, automatically spots anomalies and generates alerts.

Garcia, a former president of the Manila Stock Exchange, said the system plays a vital role in assuring investors that the PSE is fully committed in creating an efficient, transparent and fair marketplace.

He, however, noted that the delinquencies of brokers had been minimized over the past few years.

“My dream is that we would never have to penalize any of the trading participants because they will be following the rules. We want to have a dialogue with them and know what their problems are,” Garcia said.

The CMIC was created to ensure the regulatory independence over the audit, surveillance and compliance activities of trading participants.