BNY Mellon will build an electronic FX pricing and trading engine in Singapore in a move to enhance its foreign exchange presence in the region.
The new low-latency electronic FX infrastructure, which is being developed in partnership with the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), will help improve execution quality and price discovery for clients initially in spot, and subsequently in deliverable and non-deliverable forwards and swaps, BNY Mellon said in an announcement on Thursday.
The move builds on the firm's efforts to integrate and raise its global FX capabilities, and build Singapore as the hub of its Asia G10 FX trading. In 2019, the bank set up a dedicated FX custody trading desk in Singapore, relocated its short-term interest rate trading (STIRT) business from Hong Kong, and established a Singapore options trading desk.
«With the benefit of local support, we can accelerate our offering of additive liquidity to clients,» Darren Boulos, head of FX sales and trading in Asia-Pacific, BNY Mellon, said.
MAS Push
The partnership with MAS is part of the central bank’s strategic initiative to develop Singapore into a global price discovery and liquidity center for FX during Asia trading hours.
«The importance of robust and resilient infrastructure to support FX trading activities cannot be understated, and we are heartened that FX players that have set up their regional pricing and matching engines in Singapore have reported greater efficiency in price discovery and improved execution for their clients,» Gillian Tan, MAS executive director, financial markets development, said in the announcement.
MAS' push has also seen firms like J.P. Morgan, Standard Chartered, UBS, Citi, BNP Paribas, Euronext, Jump Trading and XTX Markets build their own regional trading infrastructure in the city-state.
