Lifting restrictions on air travel

CHICAGO, USA — Two years of isolation in the so-called bubble were quite tortuous for many of us who love to travel. But as I was preparing for my first overseas trip in the pandemic era, a welcome piece of news made my day.

The US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suddenly announced late last month that international air travels need not show proof of negative COVID-19 test results prior to boarding a flight to America effective June 12, 2022. CDC believes that the pandemic has now shifted to a new phase due to the widespread uptake of vaccines.

This comes amid pressure from the airline industry, which viewed the measures as highly excessive and thus resulted in the plummeting of plane ticket purchases. In a recent Bloomberg interview, Johns Hopkins University biosecurity expert Eric Toner said the testing requirement for international travel was not evident-based or logical, and most countries have abandoned that approach.

However, Toner recommended that masks should still be worn especially when flying to reduce the chances of viral spread. Easier said than done, though, as many of my co-passengers in three connecting flights to the “Windy City” were maskless.

Here in the Midwest, it’s back to pre-pandemic practices with the majority of Americans not using face masks in public places such as trains, malls, and commercial buildings. Will it take another surge or a stealthier variant to make everyone realize that the pandemic is not over yet?

END OF AN ERA
Back home, today is the last operating day of the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) trading floor – signaling a new era of floorless trading for the local equities market. The PSE’s sentimental announcement also heralded the end of traditional trading in Southeast Asia’s oldest stock market.

It may be recalled that the Philippines’ first automated trading platform was built by Filipino-Japanese venture iWave, Inc. in 1993 at the PSE’s Tektite floor. Since then, iWave has become a financial industry leader in the development and management of proprietary technology products for banks and other financial institutions that process high-volume secure transactions. It is both a subsidiary and technology arm of PSE-listed DFNN, Inc.

Up to today, the country’s largest online stock brokerage firms use iWave’s tech components – the latest of which is the Next-Wave Interactive Broker Platforms and Systems, a comprehensive digital stock trading platform that is app-driven with complete back office, customer relationship, digital marketing, and secure identity solutions allowing PSE’s trading participants and retail investors to maximize stock market activities via an end-to-end integrated system.

Next-Wave was developed in collaboration with DFNN’s long-time tech partner DirectFN, which is present in around 20 countries and specializes in fast and accurate trading solutions as well as stock exchange information for institutions on a subscription basis. The retail channel of the trading platform is designed to leverage the largely untapped young professionals and first-time investors who are starting to learn the intricacies of the stock market.

More importantly, iWave envisions Next-Wave to expand online trading and make market participation inclusive, thereby accelerating the growth of the Philippines’ capital markets.

The opinion expressed herein does not necessarily reflect the views of these institutions and BusinessWorld.

J. Albert Gamboa is the chief finance officer of Asian Center for Legal Excellence and chairman of the FINEX Media Affairs Committee. #FinexPhils www.finex.org.ph