Nomura launches eFX engine in Singapore for NDFs and G10 FX in APAC
Several leading names within the industry have recently set up or enhanced infrastructure in Singapore as the country develops its FX market to serve the growing trading and hedging needs in the region.
Nomura has launched an eFX pricing and trading engine in Singapore, with support from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).
This will be Nomura’s fourth e-FX pricing engine following others in Tokyo, London, and New York, and addresses the needs of the investment bank’s Asian client base as the group continues its focus on non-deliverable forwards and G10 FX in the region.
Singapore’s financial watchdog, MAS, has aggressively and successfully pursued its strategy to strengthen the jurisdiction’s standing as a major trading and corporate treasury hub.
Several leading names within the industry have recently set up or enhanced infrastructure there as the country develops its FX market to serve the growing trading and hedging needs in the region.
The progressive concentration of big financial players in Singapore is also a response to China’s unwelcomed grip in Hong Kong, which has raised concerns over what may come next.
Rig Karkhanis, Deputy Head of Global Markets and Global Head of FX and Emerging Markets at Nomura, said: “As a global financial services group with a strong presence in Singapore, we are fully committed to supporting the city-state’s development as a major global FX hub.
“This initiative, which is expected to go live later this year, will help support our clients with better infrastructure for execution, improved access to liquidity and effective price discovery.”
Lim Cheng Khai, Executive Director, Financial Markets Development, MAS, said: “MAS welcomes Nomura’s establishment of its FX pricing and matching engine in Singapore. It will bolster the build-up of a critical mass of market participants in our FX e-trading ecosystem, and strengthen Singapore’s proposition as a leading FX hub in the Asian time zone.”
A number of firms have recently announced the launch or upcoming launches of eFX trading engines in Singapore as part of the initiative by MAS.
Several other large banks have also agreed to develop FX pricing and trading engines in the country, including Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, BNP Paribas, BNY Mellon, Deutsche Bank, Barclays, Macquarie, Northern Trust, XTX Markets, and Jump Trading.
Co-locating the pricing engine with the trading desk in Singapore provides improved speed and enhanced pricing discovery for regional market participants.
Barlcays’ new FX trading and pricing engine will be its fourth electronic FX trading hub globally and will be launched in mid-2021.
The bank will be building out a local instance of FX trading system BARX. This will include the rollout of the latest BARX Direct technology which combines next-generation pricing algorithms with ultra-low latency co-location connectivity.
Interactive Brokers added a Singapore entity in 2020, located in the Marina Bay Financial District. The firm now serves over 876,000 clients accounts in more than 220 countries and territories through its nine entities, in the US, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Luxembourg, the UK, and Singapore.
More than 37% of its accounts now come from Asia and growth continues to be strong. This has contributed to the decision of opening an office in the country.
