PDEX, Thomson Reuters sign accord

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine Dealing System Holdings Corp. (PDS Group) and Thomson Reuters has entered into a strategic agreement to jointly deliver enhanced products and services to the members of the PDS Foreign Exchange (FX) and fixed income trading communities in the Philippines.

Thomson Reuters is the world’s leading source of intelligent information for businesses and professionals.  

The PDS Group currently operates the US dollar and peso FX Spot Trading System for the Bankers Association of the Philippines (BAP) member banks through a system provided by a NASDAQ OMX and operates the dollar-peso Payment versus Payment (PVP) system – the Philippine FX Settlement System, as well as the Philippine Domestic Dollar Transfer System (PDDTS).

Thomson Reuters provides the dollar-peso FX Swap and FX Forward Trading System for the BAP Member Banks and is the premiere system for FX Spot and Forward trading of global currencies by Philippine banks. Thomson Reuters also provides trading capabilities for Interest Rate Swaps and Forwards.

The current PDS Group platform will be enhanced with fixed and conversational formats to allow the community to employ varied techniques for operating within the quote driven environment. Access opportunities for the FX community will be complemented with a matching capability for the dollar-peso spot market. 

The partnership looks forward to making available new market services for forwards and swaps to the FX community. And the entire spectrum of transactional capabilities will be supported by a settlement system that uses Thomson Reuters market leading straight through processing (STP) facilities.

The PDS Group also operates a registered market for fixed income (FI) securities for an expanded trading community that integrates the dealer and investor segments, captures trades across the over-the-counter (OTC) and exchange environments, and with infrastructure that covers the cycle from trading, clearing and settlement through to asset servicing, with trading platforms provided by NASDAQ OMX and securities services platforms provided by TATA Consultancy Services. 

Its partnership with Thomson Reuters will also be brought to bear on this community, to share Thomson Reuters’ strengths in global information dissemination and knowledge facilities. FX and FI price and transaction data will be integrated by PDS for real-time local and global publication via Thomson Reuters Eikon, its next generation trading desktop. 

Thomson Reuters will also be rolling out its knowledge facilities to the PDS Group’s fixed income and FX communities through the PDS Academy, a suite of electronic learning facilities to be powered by Thomson Reuters knowledge capabilities that will benefit all of the PDS Trading Communities’ FX and Fixed Income Members.

The Philippine Dealing System Group of Companies (PDS Group) hosts a fixed income and foreign exchange market infrastructure that seamlessly links pre-trade to post-trade activities in the financial markets to meet the needs of investors, intermediaries and issuers. It also provides the securities settlement facilities for the equities market.

The PDS Group has three operating subsidiaries: the Philippine Dealing & Exchange Corp. operates electronic trading platforms for securities and currencies; the Philippine Depository & Trust Corp. provides securities services through depository, registry and custody services and the Philippine Securities Settlement Corp. provides electronic settlement facilities with straight through process and delivery versus payment capabilities.