Union Bank of the Philippines (UnionBank) announced on July 17 it has adopted the electronic trading solution of Refinitiv Ltd. to power its business in the Philippines and strengthen its presence in both the local and international foreign-exchange markets.
“In the Southeast Asian region, electronic trading has gained ground since banks require flexible trading platforms and tools that provide control over electronic pricing, distribution and hedging that meet the changing demands of their client base while improving efficiency through automation,” the bank said in a statement. “Being plugged in to rapidly growing Asian wealth opportunity, financial institutions are looking for an effective tool to increase their competitiveness.”
The bank added that through electronic trading, over 300 financial institutions across 80 countries globally are already benefiting from a next-generation e-commerce trading platform. Accessible via FXT, the single source of access to preferred foreign-exchange trading venues, electronic trading offers a powerful suite of e-commerce products to shape, configure and automate FX prices to customers while streamlining risk management, it added.
Refinitiv Director of Trading for Asia Pacific Luke Elliott was quoted in the statement as saying.
“As the first local bank to adopt Refinitiv’s ET system, UnionBank will have access to an efficient and digitized FX trading platform to ensure its nationwide branch network is more connected, enabling the ongoing growth of its FX business,” Elliott added.
“Our adoption of Refinitiv’s electronic trading allows us to distribute reliable and live prices to our branch network using a cloud-based platform with straight-through processing for operating efficiency,” UnionBank Chief Finance Officer and Treasurer Jose Emmanuel U. Hilado was quoted in the statement as saying. “We aim to be the first bank to provide an executable live FX platform that would link corporate clients to the dealing room via the Internet resulting to enhanced customer experience.”