ACI Phils eyes consolidation

ACI Philippines is holding merger talks with the Money Market Association of the Philippines (Mart) to form a single body representing the foreign exchange dealers and financial trading sector in the Philippines. ACI Philippines was formerly known as the Forex Association of the Philippines (Forex).

It is affiliated with the Paris-based ACI, an international association in the wholesale financial markets of the world. The Philippine affiliate has nearly 500 individual members.

"We want to consolidate the forex market and then the entire financial trading sectors," said ACI Phils. president Marcelo E. Ayes. Ayes is the first vice president of Equitable PCI Bank.

He added that ACI Phils. wants the country to have one voice in the international financial community as well as unite the local financial currency trading market.

Another underlying reason for the unification talks is the much-awaited international conference of ACI in 2006 to be held in the Philippines. It will see hundreds of ACI-affiliated national organizations coming from 67 countries and another 17 countries sending individual members.

In the domestic front, the association would also want to address "misconceptions" regarding alleged manipulation of the foreign currency market.

The peso has been recording new record lows or depreciating to unprecedented levels prompting regulators to crack the whip on the forex market. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has threatened the forex traders of the commercial banks with stiff penalties including an increase in the reserve requirements in an attempt to curb speculation on the peso.

"We would like the public to understand how we operate," ACI Phil. secretary Antonio V. Agcaoili said. "We do not manipulate the forex markets, and we want to be able to defend ourselves." Agcaoili is also the vice president of the Asia United Bank (AUB).

The ACI, or the Association Cambiste International, was founded in France in 1955 following an agreement between foreign exchange dealers in Paris and London. There are now affiliated financial markets associations in 67 countries and individual members in another 17 countries.

It recently revised its membership criteria and removed the ‘national’ and ‘international’ categories, replacing these with a single membership category. Once the effects of these changes have been incorporated it is expected that ACI will have ‘over 15,000 members. ACI has the largest membership of any of the international associations in the wholesale financial markets. The secretariat of the organization is based in Paris. – Ted Torres