Bloomberg Trading Platform for Singapore Bonds Launched

Bloomberg Trading Platform for Singapore Bonds Launched

May 30, 2006

    NEW YORK, May 30 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- Bloomberg, the
leading data, analytics and news provider, this week
announced that the Bloomberg E-Bond platform for Singapore
Government Bonds has been launched on the BLOOMBERG
PROFESSIONAL(R) service.  
    Bloomberg E-Bond, available to certain users of the
BLOOMBERG PROFESSIONAL(R) service via the function EBND
< GO > , is a global electronic trading system for
bonds and treasury bills.  Developed for the Singapore
Primary Dealer community on behalf of the Monetary
Authority of Singapore ("MAS") for Singapore
Government Securities, Bloomberg E-Bond offers a unique
multi-dealer Request For Quote ("RFQ") and
anonymous quotation bulletin board, along with
Straight-Through-Processing ("STP") features and
real-time market activity displays.  SGSM < GO > is
the real-time market activity monitor for Singapore
Government Securities, and EB < GO > is the main menu
for E-Bond functions.  

    Using Bloomberg E-Bond, Singapore Primary Dealers now
benefit from a flexible, commission-free dealing, trade
capture and reporting mechanism while seamlessly offering
global investors and market oversight entities a real-time
view of price quotations and market activity for Singapore
Government Securities.  The Bloomberg E-Bond platform will
play a key role in fostering price transparency and
liquidity in financial markets in the region. 

    In July 2005 Bloomberg E-Bond became the interbank
dealing platform in Singapore when the initial launch of
Bloomberg E-Bond RFQ trading among Singapore Primary
Dealers introduced real-time quote depth and trading
information to domestic and foreign market participants. 
The next phase of Bloomberg E-Bond went live on May 3,
2006, involving the addition of an integrated anonymous
quotation bulletin board.  The incorporation of executable
quotes further increases the quality of liquidity and
transparency in the Singapore Government Securities
market.

    In the nine months ending April 2006, more than 11,000
trades totaling more than USD $38 billion have been
executed on Bloomberg E-Bond by the 11 Singapore Primary
Dealer firms, which include ABN Amro, Bank of America,
Barclays, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, DBS,
HSBC, OCBC, Standard Chartered, and United Overseas Bank. 
Underscoring the initial global response to Bloomberg
E-Bond, foreign ownership of Singapore Government
Securities had more than doubled from 6% to 14% in the
three months following the July 2005 launch of RFQ trading
on Bloomberg E-Bond in Singapore.

    About Bloomberg E-Bond

    The Bloomberg E-Bond platform offers trading in local
currency bonds and treasury bills without transaction fees
via the function EBND < GO > on the BLOOMBERG
PROFESSIONAL service.  The EBND screen allows for two-way
RFQ pricing and displays competing real-time quote depth on
an anonymous quotation bulletin board.

    With Bloomberg E-Bond's RFQ module, market-makers are
able to request for market quotes from multiple
counterparties and are able to effectively control multiple
transactions at any given time in active market.  

    Another module of Bloomberg E-Bond allows dealers to
send orders in response to anonymous quotations.  This
module can be used separately from the RFQ module and
contains an individual counterparty credit database set by
each dealer which reveals the identities of the
counterparties to a proposed trade.  Bloomberg E-Bond
provides price transparency and liquidity but does not
perform matching, execution, clearing or settlement
functions.

    Bloomberg E-Bond is now being implemented across Asia,
including Indonesia with 25 participating firms, Sri Lanka
with 13 firms, and the Philippines with 24 firms.  In
addition to secondary market trading platform, Bloomberg
also offers its Bloomberg Auction System, which allows
government debt issuers to conduct their primary market
auctions via the same platform.  Consolidating primary and
secondary market trading mechanisms can reduce the costs
borne by dealers for participation and integration for STP
purposes.  With Bloomberg's widely distributed technology,
including the use by many Primary Dealers of the Bloomberg
position-keeping and risk-management system (TOMS),
Bloomberg E-Bond offers full STP with no transaction fees
and minimal implementation and integration costs for banks.
 As Bloomberg E-Bond is adopted by more countries that seek
to develop more cross-border flow, the efficiencies of the
platform continue to grow in value.

    About Bloomberg 

    Bloomberg is the leading global provider of data, news
and analytics.  The BLOOMBERG PROFESSIONAL(R) service and
Bloomberg's media services provide real-time and archived
financial and market data, pricing, trading, news and
communications tools in a single, integrated package to
corporations, news organizations, financial and legal
professionals and individuals around the world. 
Bloomberg's media services include the global BLOOMBERG
NEWS(R) service with more than 1,900 professionals in 125
bureaus worldwide; the BLOOMBERG TELEVISION(R) 24-hour
business and financial network produced and distributed
worldwide on ten separate channels in seven languages; and
BLOOMBERG RADIO(SM) services which provide up-to-the-minute
news on XM, Sirius and WorldSpace satellite radio around the
world and on WBBR 1130AM in New York.  In addition,
Bloomberg publishes BLOOMBERG MARKETS(R) magazine and
BLOOMBERG PRESS(R) books for investment professionals.  For
more information please visit http://www.bloomberg.com. 

    For more information, please contact:

     Judith Czelusniak 
     Bloomberg LP
     Tel:   [phone]
     Email: [e-mail]

SOURCE  Bloomberg