15 Jan 2004 13:33

EFiR System Passes Technical Audit by Russian Exchanges

EFiR, a state-of-the-art online financial news system developed and owned by the Interfax news agency, has passed a technical audit carried out by Russian exchanges and has received a certificate to the effect from the Association of Financial and Business Information Distributors (AFBID), a group that brings together leading news agencies and exchanges in Russia and other former Soviet republics.

An AFBID working group, which includes representatives of major Russian exchanges, has come to the conclusion that EFiR meets AFBID criteria and precludes any unauthorized use of exchange information and any violation of contracts between news agencies and the exchanges.
Two systems developed by other organizations have received such certificates as well.
"The fact that three leading Russian providers of exchange information have passed technical audits means that their subscribers have received extra guarantees of the authenticity of trade reports," said AFBID Executive Director Olga Rink.
"Use of uniform technical standards for distribution systems of exchange information provides all those interested with guarantees of equal terms for the reception of such information, makes the Russian information market more transparent, and limits chances for the piratical redistribution of information," she said.
AFBID working group leader Sergei Golovanev said it has long been a general practice in the West for agencies reporting exchange news to be audited by exchanges.
"The agencies themselves proposed a comprehensive inspection, as this adds a civilized character to the Russian news market, where information property rights are not always respected."
AFBID members stand for uniform rules in the news market. They want all market participants to respect information property rights and seek to have other distributors of exchange information undergo technical audits.
The Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange (MICEX) and the Russian Trading System (RTS), which are AFBID members, have confirmed their readiness to take the results of technical audits into account when signing or extending news distribution contracts by including terms similar to the principal requirements of AFBID technical audits.
The declared task of AFBID, set up in 1999, is to work for greater information transparency, larger investment in the Russian economy, and fair competition in the financial and economic news market.