PHILIPPINE COMPETITION policy needs to be geared towards confronting major digital companies and head off monopolies that could worsen the digital divide, an Asian Development Bank (ADB) think tank said.

ADB Institute Dean and Chief Executive Officer Tetsushi Sonobe said large-scale mergers among digital companies are causing a digital divide by destroying the business of other service providers and causing exorbitant pricing that excludes many consumers from accessing services.

“We need to confront big tech to save domestic consumers, firms, workers, and freelancers,” he said at a forum organized by the Philippine Economic Society Thursday. “We need to strengthen the capability of competition agencies.”

Digitalization, Mr. Sonobe said, must level the playing field and be accompanied by social safety nets to ensure most people better off.

Leveling the playing field translates to investment in digital literacy and digital infrastructure, while social safety nets are targeted towards industries that lose out due to digitalization, he said.

But Mr. Sonobe also noted that the behavior of digital platforms are sufficient on their own to cause a digital divide.

The European Union, he said, has investigated Google’s alleged abuse of its dominant position in the market, and is working to force big technology companies to share customer data with smaller competitors.

Google recently lost an appeal against a $2.8-billion antitrust decision against the EU, which fined the company after Google used its own price comparison shopping services to unfairly gain an advantage against European firms, Reuters reported.

The Philippine Competition Commission (PCC), Mr. Sonobe said, can work with counterparts in other countries and multilateral agencies to strengthen its capability to confront big technology.

“We need to increase awareness of consumers, firms, workers, freelancers and policymakers and then we review the competition policy of the country, maybe strengthen the competition policy, competition law.”

Meanwhile, PCC Commissioner Arsenio M. Balisacan at the same event said improvements in information and communications technology competition have been made in the Philippines, including the entry of a third telecommunications player.

But he said that further reforms are needed, including the streamlining of permit requirements to deploy broadband equipment and restructuring spectrum user fees, which he added would encourage investment. — Jenina P. Ibañez

It’s the Grinch That Stole New Year’s.

Thanks to whoever created an obscure piece of New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) red tape — officially known as Rule 7.2 — US equity markets won’t commemorate the start of 2022 with a holiday.

The rule stipulates that when a holiday falls on a Saturday, the market will close on the preceding Friday — unless, that is, “unusual business conditions exist, such as the ending of a monthly or yearly accounting period.” Since Dec. 31 marks the end of the month, quarter and year, that means a full session on New Year’s Eve and no day off on the following Monday.

While the exchange published its holiday schedule a long time ago, complete with a footnote under the New Year’s Day 2022 column, some market participants are only now realizing they’re getting stiffed on the holiday. Adding salt to the wounds, bond traders get to start their New Year’s Eve parties a little earlier: Sifma is calling for a 2 p.m. market close that day.

“People are going to lose their minds, honestly,” Kim Forrest, founder and chief investment officer at Bokeh Capital Partners, said by phone. “I’m looking at that Monday and saying, what the what? Are you kidding me?”

There could be more at stake than just sour grapes. Scott Bauer, chief executive officer of Prosper Trading Academy, has a family ski vacation planned for the end of the year and said he will adjust his holdings ahead of time just in case.

“What I will certainly do is position myself accordingly so that going into that long weekend, any positions that don’t expire Dec. 31^st, anything that I may have subsequent to that, I’ll make sure I don’t have any expiring options or futures positions that first week of January,” he said. “I’ll be attuned to the market, but I absolutely will not be putting on new positions.”

It’s not the first time Wall Street has been deprived of a day off for the holiday. Rule 7.2 also reared its ugly head 11 years ago when New Year’s Day fell on a Saturday in 2011. And there’s actually good news on the holiday calendar this year: A new day off for Juneteenth National Independence Day has been added on Monday, June 20.

Not to mention, many traders these days can get away with avoiding the office since the pandemic forced them to establish robust work-from-home setups. Volumes remained elevated in the days ahead of Thanksgiving last year as more traders, stuck at home due to the pandemic, remained logged on for clients.

Paul Nolte, portfolio manager at Kingsview Investment Management, plans to fly from Chicago to Florida at year-end and bring his “office,” meaning his laptop, along. “I still plan on partying,” he said. “I’ll just have to start a little later.”

Still, it goes without saying that not everyone is thrilled about a missed day off, especially since it’s a federal holiday. An NYSE representative declined to comment.

“A bunch of Grinches,” Steve Chiavarone, portfolio manager and head of multi-asset solutions at Federated Hermes, said while looking at the calendar. Holiday or not, he added, many fund managers try not to be too active at the end of the year.

“You generally see liquidity tail off that last week of the year, really from Christmas on,” he said.

It’s not just market liquidity that will be reduced this year.

“Maybe I wait a little bit later in the day to start sipping champagne,” Chiavarone said. “I don’t really need to be drinking before 4 p.m.”  — Bloomberg