PSE spending $11 million to upgrade trading engine

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Stock Exchange Inc., the operator of the country’s only stock market, is not letting up on its efforts to be up to par with global stock exchanges with investments of about $11 million to bolster its operations.

PSE president and CEO Ramon Monzon said they are planning to spend another $10 million to $11 million to upgrade the bourse’s trading engine.

“We have a trading engine, our Nasdaq trading engine. Still good, but you know when you’re an exchange you have to keep upgrading. Even though it is still good, you need to get the latest,” Monzon told The STAR in an interview.

“We’re investing in a new trading engine in 2025 that will costs about $10 million to $11 million over 10 years,” he said.

The PSE migrated to its new trading system, the PSEtrade XTS using Nasdaq’s X-stream trading technology, back in June 2015.

The PSEtrade XTS, which replaced the previous trading platform, allowed the PSE to handle large trading volumes.

It also supported expanded requirements of the PSE, including providing more products and services.

Monzon earlier said the PSE’s priority for this year up to 2026 would be to expand its product portfolio to improve market liquidity and pursue new growth areas.

The PSE is staying optimistic on its target amount of capital to be raised in the bourse this year as well as the number of initial public offerings (IPO) despite recent market slowdown.

The PSE maintains the target of six IPOs and about P175 billion worth of capital to be raised this year.