BAP, Bloomberg partner for forex platform

MANILA, Philippines — The Bankers Association of the Philippines (BAP) has partnered with Bloomberg to pursue several initiatives to further the growth of the foreign exchange (forex) market in the Philippines.

BAP managing director Benjamin Castillo said the group has appointed Bloomberg as the new calculation agent for the US dollar/Philippine peso (USD/PHP) spot reference rate to provide enhanced solutions to the forex community in the country.

An important benchmark, the USD/PHP spot reference rate is extensively used by onshore and offshore banks, corporations and asset managers for trade execution, valuation and benchmarking of portfolios.

Castillo said the new initiatives support the financial market development reforms being pursued by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to better organize and deepen the country's forex market.

“We look forward to execution efficiency, increased market liquidity and transparency leveraging Bloomberg's technology platform and industry best practices," he said.

Under the agreement, Bloomberg will calculate the USD/PHP spot reference rate based on trades carried out by BAP member banks.

An accurate representation of the market and each fix will be available as trades are captured across a deep and broad pool of forex market participants. Results will be published on BAP's website (https://bap.org.ph) as well as on the Bloomberg Terminal.

The USD/PHP spot trading will be conducted on Bloomberg's forex electronic trading and communication platform, FXGO, where regulators will have real-time visibility of market activity and greater oversight of the forex market.

Liquidity of the forex spot and forwards markets in the Philippines is also pooled onto a single platform since forex forwards are being traded and reported on Bloomberg's electronic platform since 2015.

Forex traders can also tap on news, data and analytics to monitor markets, analyze trends and generate trading ideas on the Bloomberg Terminal.

"Bloomberg is excited to extend our ongoing partnership with the Bankers Association of the Philippines by improving transparency and efficiency in the Philippine forex market," said Andrea Mosconi, Bloomberg's head of sales, ASEAN.

"As the Philippines undergoes economic transformation, we will continue to bring best-in-class technology to advance one of the world's fastest growing countries."

Bloomberg is also the official calculating agent for the Philippine interbank reference rate or more commonly known as PHIREF.

Prior to the partnership with Bloomberg, peso-dollar trading among BAP member-banks and between these banks and the BSP are done through the Philippine Dealing System (PDS).

The PDS Group has stopped the publication of the USD/PHP forex spot summary last April 1.