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Publisher’s Letter
Jan 5, 2005 12:26 PM
By Martin Rapaport
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Dear Friends,
On behalf of all of us at the Rapaport Group of Companies I extend greetings and best wishes for the New Year. We pray for the welfare of the many that have suffered in the recent tsunami disaster and we pray that the New Year will bring peace, prosperity, health and happiness to all.
We wish to thank you — all of our Rapaport members, subscribers, advertisers, clients and suppliers — for your consistent and loyal support over the past year. We want you to know that we appreciate you and that as the New Year begins we are rededicating ourselves to bringing you new and better services.
As you know, the internet is playing an increasingly important role in the business environment. Not only does it provide instant access to prices, news and market information, it also provides online diamond-trading opportunities with access to the best diamonds at the best prices. We are committed to optimizing the use of the internet in the diamond trade and are therefore implementing changes and greatly expanding our internet services.
All of our internet services will continue to be available via our primary portal, www.Diamonds.net, where subscribers and members can access and download our prices, news and market information. Important changes will be taking place as we expand and develop our INDEX® – Internet Diamond Exchange and RapNet® diamond-trading platforms.
INDEX access will be available free of charge to Rapaport subscribers with trading privileges restricted to qualified members of the diamond trade. A primary aspect of INDEX is that payment to sellers and delivery of diamonds to buyers will be guaranteed by the Exchange. Buyers and sellers will not be identified as transactions will be done through the Exchange. INDEX will charge a 2 percent clearinghouse fee that will be added on to the quoted seller’s asking price.
RapNet will continue to provide a trading platform where buyers and sellers are identified and deal directly with each other. RapNet will, however, charge an annual membership fee that will include a subscription to the Rapaport Diamond Report and weekly price updates on the internet. The annual RapNet membership fee will be $500 for the U.S. and $600 overseas.
We plan to significantly upgrade our global internet diamond-trading services over the coming year with greatly improved customer service, trading assistance and expanded features. Furthermore, we will be taking action to ensure that all who trade on INDEX and RapNet are in full compliance with our best practice principles and all government regulations related to the Kimberley Process (KP) and the USA PATRIOT Act.
Additional information is available in our “Diamond Trading on the Internet” brochure included with this magazine. Please feel free to contact our trading department at +1.212.763.4000, or by email at trade@Diamonds.net or on the internet at www.Diamonds.net for additional information about our expanded diamond-trading services.
Yours truly,
Martin Rapaport
Publisher
Rapaport Diamond Report
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Tags:
Compliance, Government, Kimberley Process
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