The Bond Exchange of South Africa (Besa) has switched over to a new FIX-based trade capture system, using Cameron Systems FIX Engine to implement the protocol.
The new trade capture system is part of a wholesale conversion to FIX connectivity for the 55 members of the Bond Traders Association. A new FIX-based price discovery system is set to go live in August. This latter will be a first for the South African bond market and will provide central price discovery for all market participants which, to date, has been fragmented.
Besa general manager, operations, John Littlewood, comments: "Going the FIX route has been the right decision for Besa and this has been confirmed by our markets acceptance of the new development and by the ongoing success FPL has had in cementing FIX as a key international standard."
Both systems have been developed for Besa by local vendor Peresys using the Microsoft .NET platform and integrated with the CameronFIX engine. The development catered for interfacing into member back and front-end systems via, either FIX using the Besa Rules of Engagement, or a .NET wrapper that implements these same rules around an embedded FIX engine. The software also interfaces into the local settlement authority.