Bell Direct Launches new SMS Share Trading for the ASX

Sydney, NSW (PRWEB) March 1, 2008 -- Bell Direct, Australia's most innovative and competitively-priced online share trading (http://www.belldirect.com.au/) platform, today launched the first ever SMS share trading service (http://www.belldirect.com.au/) for the Australian Stock Exchange.

From today, Bell Direct customers will be able to enjoy the convenience of buying and selling shares on the ASX from their mobile phone via a simple SMS transaction that is easy, quick and secure.

Chief Operating Officer, Lee Muco, said "Bell Direct's introduction of SMS share trading (http://www.belldirect.com.au/) into Australia will provide investors with a new level of convenience and fast access to the stock market, allowing users to trade shares using their most familiar accessory - the mobile phone."

"As long as investors have their mobile phone handy, Bell Direct SMS share trading enables them to trade shares even if they are away from their computer or without Internet access. Given the recent stock market volatility and downturn this functionality has become even more important for certain investors," Mr. Muco said.

"Whilst Australian investors have previously been able to trade shares via mobile phones, they have had to do so by using WAP internet access, which compared to using SMS, is cumbersome, complicated and can be expensive. Accessing the internet on your phone is still nowhere near as fast and easy as sending an SMS and can carry all sorts of hidden data usage costs, and of course everybody is familiar with how to use SMS," Mr, Muco said.

Bell Direct customers using SMS share trading (http://www.belldirect.com.au/) will pay a fixed cost of only 55 cents per SMS, and benefit from Bell Direct's market-beating online brokerage pricing of just $15 per trade.

Although brand new to Australia, SMS share trading is already extremely popular in South East Asian markets such as China, Malaysia and South Korea.

According to a recent report by US firm Research & Markets, at the end of 2007 there were 1.48 million mobile stock traders in China, a figure forecast to rise to 2.58 million by the end of 2008.

Mr. Muco said Bell Direct was confident that its SMS share trading facility would also be enthusiastically taken up by Australian investors.

"Australians are increasingly comfortable with SMS as a channel for financial transactions, and with the major banks introducing SMS banking, SMS share trading (http://www.belldirect.com.au/) is a logical and exciting innovation for Bell Direct to introduce," Mr. Muco said.

Bell Direct was launched in November last year and is the first new online share trading platform to begin operating in Australia in a decade. The company is part-owned by Bell Financial which listed on the ASX in December last year.

The Executive Chairman and principal architect of Bell Direct is Steven Goh, a true innovator in the online share trading industry. Mr Goh created Australia's first online stockbroker, Sanford Securities, in 1997.

Mr. Goh said that cutting-edge, proprietary technology developed from the ground up and designed to enhance the customer experience was at the core of Bell Direct.

"Our SMS share trading service is an example of how our completely new trading platform is flexible enough to meet the demands of today's investor for ever-more innovative and convenient products," Mr. Goh said.

"In technological terms, and in the service we offer our customers we are streets ahead of our competitors, and SMS share trading is just the first of a raft of exciting innovations Bell Direct will be bringing to the Australian investment community this year," he said.

About Bell Direct - www.belldirect.com.au

Bell Direct is the newest, most user-friendly and discount online share trading (http://www.belldirect.com.au/) service available to investors in Australia , including the lowest cost-per-trade ever offered by an online broker at just $15, Bell Direct was developed by the same pioneering team that created Australia's very first online share brokerage, What makes Bell Direct unique is its world-class, proprietary web 2.0 technology designed specifically for an enhanced customer experience and value proposition which competitors cannot match. Bell Direct is independent and Australian-owned, and has the backing of Bell Financial, the ASX-listed parent of one of Australia's largest and most respected private client stockbroking firms, Bell Potter Securities. Visit Bell Direct to see the future of online share trading in Australia.

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