Citi will establish an electronic foreign exchange (FX) pricing and trading engine in Singapore to boost liquidity in the region.
The electronic platform, expected to go live in the final quarter of 2019, will boost the development of Singapore as an Asian liquidity hub for the region. According to a triennial central bank survey by the Bank for International Settlements, Singapore’s currency market recorded US$517 billion in daily average trading volume in 2016, higher than Hong Kong and Japan,
«The expansion of our FX trading engine will also lead to a vast improvement in latency for our clients in Singapore and across much of Asia Pacific, who prior to this would connect via Tokyo or one of our trading engines outside of the region. With Asia Pacific expected to attract a larger share of global investment flows, this initiative will improve price transparency and facilitate more efficient price discovery in the region’s time zone,» said Stuart Staley, Asia Pacific Head of Markets and Securities Services at Citi.
Fourth Location
The entire engine, built in-house by Citi, includes a proprietary pricing and hedging algorithm, through which clients can deal. It will initially offer 23 spot currencies (G10 and 13 deliverable EM currencies), as well as two precious metals (Gold and Silver).
Citi currently operates this trading infrastructure in London, New York and Tokyo. Singapore will become the fourth location from which prices are distributed to clients.
