RHB Investment Bank first to offer institutional clients a more efficient channel to trade

Kuala Lumpur, 4 February 2008: RHB Investment Bank Bhd (“RHB Investment Bank”) has become the first local brokerage in Malaysia to take the first step towards offering its institutional clients Straight Through Processing (“STP”) with the launch of its ECOS Fix Gateway recently. This is a precursor to eventually adopting full Direct Market Access (DMA) when it is launched by Bursa Malaysia.

The move is in line with a proposal by the Exchange to move the equity market into a speedier order routing mode, a strategy that is essential to ensure that the Malaysian capital market remains competitive in the global investment arena.

With the ECOS Fix Gateway, RHB Investment Bank can now offer its institutional clients quicker routing of their orders to Bursa Malaysia. The time taken for order routing, all done electronically, has improved from 15-30 seconds to 5-15 seconds, thus eliminating many of the inefficiencies found in the full service channel being offered now, according to Managing Director of RHB Investment Bank, Mr Chay Wai Leong.

The ECOS enables clients to receive trade confirmation messages routed from Bursa Malaysia via RHB Investment Bank. With the STP, the client will have an additional channel through which to trade. Currently clients can trade through the Internet and by calling dealers and remisiers using the telephone.

The STP will also free up sales personnel from being bogged down by trade execution and post-trade activities such as confirmation and allocation. This will enable them to focus on providing better research and trading ideas whilst clients will get greater anonymity and control over trade execution and strategies.

Bursa Malaysia’s Chief Executive Officer Dato’ Yusli Mohamed Yusoff said that “STP gives investors better control over the executions as orders are not manually keyed in by an intermediary, thus minimising human error. Through bypassing dealer intervention, orders can be executed faster thereby giving great value to both the broker and the customer.”

Issued on behalf of RHB Investment Bank Bhd by Group Corporate Communications, RHB Capital Bhd.

For information, please contact:

Mr Yeoh Guan Jin
Assistant General Manager, Group Corporate Communications
RHB Capital Bhd
Tel: +603-9280 2536
Mobile phone: +6012-3835027
Email: guanjin@rhb.com.my