BRIEF TRANSMISSION

In the meantime, the practice of holding auctions to raise money for charity is spreading at Reuters. Either that, or its senior managers are truly committed to profound change. At Reuters Asia's management meeting last month in Singapore, a call for donations to a local charity sparked an impromptu auction. This time, Reuters executives were bidding to deprive their colleagues of various prized possessions and vices. Phillip Melchior, Reuters east Asia managing director agreed to be shorn of his facial hair--on the spot. David Brocklehurst, Reuters' m.d. for Australia and New Zealand, agreed to grow some. Marketing manager Miyuki Suzuki and east Asia m.d. A. G. Joshi agreed to less visible, but clearly as painful sacrifices: Joshi must refrain from smoking until the next management meeting in December, while Suzuki will spend that time without tasting red wine. As part of the fund drive organised by Singapore country manager Francis Tan, Reuters Singapore raised S$28,000 ($19,600) for St. Joseph's Home for the Aged.

Growth of another sort in Singapore: Dresdner Bank's Asia Pacific chief executive officer Rolf Willi and Nationsbanc-CRT's global FX options manager Michael Kukanza both told D&IS' sister publication FX Week that their banks plan to expand their operations in Singapore. "We'll need to invest more in the centre," Kukanza says of Nationsbanc, whose traders relocated to a new dealing room in Singapore in August. Under Willi, who took the job as regional head this month, Dresdner will concentrate trading in Asian currencies in Singapore. The bank has already shut down its market-making activities in Sydney, which have been shifted to Singapore.

But that still won't be enough to keep money broker Martin Bierbaum afloat in Singapore. The broker closed its doors and let 25 brokers go last month, citing increased competition from electronic FX broking systems, according to published reports. Human brokers did just 52 percent of the brokered FX trades in Singapore in May this year, down dramatically from 76 percent in August of 1994 (D&IS, 11 Sept.). But in Singapore at least, the Electronic Broking Service (EBS) bank consortium-owned FX matching systems is more to blame than Reuters' Dealing 2000-2. EBS claims 59 percent of the electronically-matched FX trades in the city-state, leaving 31 percent for Reuters and for the Minex Corp. matching system, just 10 percent.

In an agreement covering business development in Asia Pacific, Financial Times Information is teaming with India's Capital Market, the country's major provider of electronic corporate fundamental databases on listed companies. The two parties will share information and applications, as well as cooperation on a ranking survey of brokerage research in India. Capital Market plans to launch its Capitastocks OLe software in Singapore at the end of this month, and will incorporate FT data into the product. As another early fruit from the partnership, FT Info will market a compendium of Indian company that Capital Market is also scheduled to launch at the end of this month.