E-stock trading launched

E-stock trading launched

SINGAPORE (AP): Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp.'s stock
brokerage unit Wednesday launched its online stock trading system
amid an increasingly competitive market and plunging brokerage
fees.

The Internet site, www.iOCBC.com, will allow investors to
trade shares in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, the
Philippines and Hong Kong, OCBC Securities said.

The move comes at a time when Singapore's financial services
industry are undergoing rapid change. Brokerage commissions are
due to be fully deregulated by January 2001.

OCBC, one of Singapore's largest banks, launched a stand alone
Internet bank last month, called finatiQ.