Bond Exchange Selects CameronFIX to Pioneer FIX for Fixed Income in South African Financial Markets

Tuesday June 1, 2004

The Bond Exchange of South Africa Adopts Financial Information Exchange Protocol and Deploys CameronFIX for its BTB Trade Capture System to provide FIX connectivity for 55+ Members of the Exchange.

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LONDON, UK — Recognizing the emergence of FIX as the future standard for the Fixed Income market, the Bond Exchange of South Africa [BESA] today announced the go-live of its new BTB Trade Capture system using the FIX protocol. BESA has selected Cameron Systems CameronFIX Engine for implementation of the protocol.

Cameron Systems’ South African-based support partner and leader in the region for FIX implementations within the cash equities market, Peresys, were contracted by the Bond Exchange to develop its new trade system using FIX.

Trade system development by Peresys comprised two separate systems integrated into a single system for the members of the Bond Traders Association. The BTB Trade Capture and BTA Prices Discovery systems replace BESA’s Bond Automated Trading System [BATS]. An integrated component of the Trade Capture system, the Price Discovery system also uses the FIX protocol to receive and communicate price information.

The CameronFIX engine manages all connection and application services to both the local and Disaster Recovery Site for the BTB Trade Capture system. FIX version 4.3 messages and tags were complemented by additions from FIX 4.4, which was endorsed by the BMA to support Fixed Income.

“We are pleased that in partnership with Peresys we have been able to provide FIX connectivity for the Members of the Bond Exchange in South Africa,” said Cameron Systems Sales Director Glenn Cruickshank. “Cameron Systems on-going commitment to further meeting the requirements of the FIX protocol to cover more instruments and new geographies, as it evolves, has been further evidenced with today’s announcement.”

“By embracing a global messaging standard the new system allows BESA to broaden its scope of services to new markets that they up until now have been unable to accommodate,” said Peresys’ Managing Director Ashley Mendelowitz. “The resulting trade reporting and price discovery system is simple and easy to use which guaranteed support from Members of the Exchange.”

“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,” said BESA’s General Manager Operations, John Littlewood. “The CameronFIX engine was a straightforward choice based on our experience during development and evaluation. By purchasing from a reputable vendor the value-added benefits, such as High Availability for guaranteed performance, a proven track record and API ease of use, far outweigh the costs incurred.”

Peresys completed initial development of the new systems for BESA in November 2003 and an extensive testing program was concluded in March 2004. The BTB Trade Capture system went live mid-May 2004. The BTA Prices Discovery system, developed by Peresys in parallel with the Trade Capture system, is scheduled to go-live August 2004. This system 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.

Further background on the Bond Exchange South Africa’s Implementation of the FIX Protocol The Bond Exchange required sufficient flexibility from the protocol to accommodate its current trading model for trades mainly in RSA Government, Corporate and municipal bonds and such variations as fixed interest-bearing bonds, zero coupon bonds, CPI Linked, variable interest rate and floating rate bonds. Members of the Exchange conclude most of their trades telephonically or through InterDealer Brokers, trades are then reported to and matched at BESA, who in turn submit the trades for clearing and settlement.

To make way for the new trade systems, a restructuring of the Bond Exchange was necessary to facilitate the unbundling of Members from the Exchange into separate market associations.

Both systems were developed using the Microsoft .NET platform and integrated seamlessly 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 of Engagement around an embedded FIX engine. The solution also interfaces into the local settlement authority.

About BESA www.besa.za.com

The Bond Exchange of South Africa [BESA] is an independent financial exchange responsible for regulating the debt securities market in South Africa. It is a self-regulatory organization operating under an annual license granted by the Financial Services Board. The South African Bond Market trades mainly in RSA Government, Corporate and municipal bonds and includes such variations as fixed interest-bearing bonds, zero coupon bonds, CPI Linked, variable interest rate and floating rate bonds. BESA operates with 55+ Members including Barclays Bank, Citibank, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan Chase Bank, Merrill Lynch and the Rand Merchant Bank.

About Peresys www.peresys.co.za

Peresys is a South African based technology solutions provider to the retail and wholesale investment sectors of the financial services industry. They are leaders in the development and delivery of solutions to exchanges, members and asset managers, with a specific focus on messaging solutions, dealing and related applications, research dissemination and integration services. Peresys partnered with Cameron Systems during early 2003 to provide a Hub and Spoke FIX connectivity solution for buy and sell side players in the local financial market, as well as their offshore counterparties. Peresys is also Cameron’s sales, implementation, training and support partner in South Africa. Peresys’ buy-side clients represent over 90% of assets under management and sell-side clients over 75% of value traded in South Africa.

About Cameron Systems www.cameronsystems.com

Cameron Systems remains focused on FIX. Its flagship product, the CameronFIX engine, is a highly scalable solution suitable for large and medium size fund managers, brokers and exchanges, as well as smaller companies who use the FIX protocol. Cameron Systems client base is global in over 15 countries in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. Major customers include UBS, Fidelity Management and Research, Knight Securities, CIBC World Markets, MFS Investment Management, Nomura Securities, Barclays Capital and Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein. Cameron Systems has offices in New York, London and Melbourne, Australia.