PSE disclosure system EDGE levels playing field for all investors

^{Screen grab of the new PSE Electronic Disclosure Generating System or EDGE}

A new online disclosure and reporting system was quietly launched by the Philippine Stock Exchange on the last trading day of 2013, and PSE president Hans Sicat on Friday said the system levels the playing field for both retail and institutional investors when it comes to information, like earnings and other corporate developments, that may impact on stock prices.

It takes time getting used to changes, said market participants and users interviewed by GMA News Online on the Philippine Stock Exchange’s (PSE) new web disclosure portal, edge.pse.com.ph, dubbed “EDGE” or Electronic Disclosure Generating System.

 

Last Dec. 27, the PSE Inc., the operator of the stock market, said “all listed company disclosures and announcements will no longer be updated on the PSE Main website,” pse.com.ph.

 

These instead will be posted on EDGE, which was unveiled on the same day. Unlike the previous system, disclosures are no longer uploaded online in PDF format. 

A necessary upgrade

 

“The EDGE is necessary to upgrade the online reporting system of issuers, and more importantly bring real time disclosure from companies straight to investors,” PSE president Hans Sicat said in a text message Friday.

 

Sicat noted the new system will level the playing field for retail investors as they will now have access to corporate information at the same as institutional investors. 

 

Information is now available real time through the portal as well as other trading terminals, and the systems of data vendors and analysts.

 

“It's a user friendly system that institutional and retail investors can access of a Web portal,” he noted. 

 

While a stock broker, who requested anonymity to protect his firm’s business interest, found the website “too complicated,” others like equity analyst Gregg Adrian Ilag said some of EDGE’s new features are useful.  

 

Ilag of stock brokerage AB Capital Securities Inc. said EDGE’s most viewed disclosure option gives analysts and market observers “some view on which stocks are currently in play.”

 

Cliff Venzon, equities markets reporter for newspaper BusinessWorld, said he is still adapting to the new portal’s layout. “It seems to be less user friendly, but it’s new and it may take time for me to get used to it,” he said in a telephone interview. 

 

Business journalists like Venzon regularly check disclosures within working hours to comb for market news. 

 

Venzon agrees when it comes to EDGE’s usefulness in disseminating information. 

 

“Disclosures now have templates, meaning companies have to fill out more details,” he said. “Unlike before when companies file a document which often lacks substance, disclosures I’ve seen on EDGE give background, context, and more details that are very important for reporters and even investors.”

 

Issuers have trained on using EDGE until December last year, noted Sicat.   

 

Mobile access

 

Mobile and smart phone access for EDGE will be rolled out this quarter. 

 

In a press release last June, the PSE said it is working with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to enable the simultaneous submission by listed companies of disclosures to the PSE and SEC.

 

EDGE is a PSE project done in partnership with the Korea Exchange (KRX). 

 

In 2012, the PSE and KRX also partnered to develop the Philippine bourse's new surveillance system on disclosure requirements including earnings or financial statements and other corporate developments that may bear on stock prices. – VS, GMA News