The Investment Dealers Association says that it hopes to have the bond transparency system, CanPX Inc., up and running by mid-July.

The IDA reports that CanPX and its facilitator, Moneyline Telerate, have developed a plan in consultation with participating firms that will provide transparency in corporate bonds in line with new transparency rules that took effect at the end of the year.

System development began in April 2004, the IDA says. The testing of participant feeds from four large corporate bond trading firms, together representing 62% of the total corporate bond market, is planned for May 26. Additional groups of three or four firms will be added in subsequent phases of the rollout. And, by mid-July the fully implemented system will be displaying corporate trade information for the vast majority of trades in designated securities occurring on Canadian markets.

The rule regarding transparency requires that marketplaces trading corporate securities, inter-dealer bond brokers and dealers trading corporate debt securities outside of a marketplace provide details on trades of all designated corporate debt securities to CanPX. Then, within one hour of the trade, CanPX will display for each trade details including the type of issue, class, series, coupon and maturity, price and time of the trade and, subject to par value caps of $2 million and above for investment grade and $200,000 and above for non-investment grade, the volume traded.

Firms who have achieved a market share of 0.5% of total corporate bond trading in two of the three most recent quarters will be required to report to CanPX. Moneyline Telerate will be contacting all participating firms shortly to advise them of their data and transmission requirements.

A corporate debt security may be designated for inclusion in the CanPX transparency system if it meets certain criteria. The initial list of designated bonds will be updated quarterly by CanPX in consultation with the industry, and the CSA and CanPX will work to increase the list of designated securities over time.