SINGAPORE – Standard Chartered Bank (StanChart) plans to launch a foreign exchange (FX) e-trading and pricing engine in Singapore, with support from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), by the first quarter of 2020.
The lender said on Monday (June 3) that the e-trading engine will offer its clients FX e-trading of 130 currencies and more than 5,000 currency pairs in spot, forward, swaps, non-deliverable forwards (NDFs) and options.
It will also offer commodities e-trading for both precious and base metals.
The new Singapore FX e-trading infrastructure adds to StanChart’s existing engines in London, New York and Tokyo. It will provide the bank’s clients in Asia with more convenient access to liquidity and more efficient FX trading.
Michele Wee, head of financial markets Singapore at StanChart, said: “E-trading take-up rates are very high among our clients; we have seen our FX e-trading volumes grow by 40 per cent year on year.”
Through the new e-trading platform, the bank can also offer “consistent pricing” to meet its Asia-based clients’ hedging requirements, Ms Wee said.
Gillian Tan, executive director in the financial markets development department at MAS, said: “The move is aligned with our goal of enhancing liquidity, price discovery and transparency in Singapore’s FX market by strengthening FX e-trading capabilities and market infrastructure.”