Bond trade slows due to clearance problem.

Byline: Nuntawun Polkuamdee

Sep. 27--A lengthy process for clearing and settling government bonds and rising interest rates has resulted in quiet trading at the two-year-old Bond Electronic Exchange (BEX) in the first nine months of this year.

Total trading value on the BEX for the nine-month period was a mere 274.52 million baht, compared with the 728.77 million baht traded from its inception on Nov 26, 2003 to December 2004, according to Santi Kiranand, the BEX president.

The bond exchange has to date seen low liquidity due to the inconvenient, lengthy process of clearing and settling bonds held by individual and institutional investors who had …