Citi extends FX pricing and trading engine to Singapore
by Graham Buck
Citi has announced plans to set up an electronic foreign exchange (FX) pricing and trading engine in Singapore, with support from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), to boost liquidity in the region.
The electronic platform is scheduled to go live in the final quarter of 2019 and aims to boost the city state’s development as an Asian liquidity hub. It will be the fourth location for Citi’s trading infrastructure, alongside London, New York and Tokyo.
The 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 (the G10 and 13 deliverable emerging market (EM) currencies), and two precious metals – gold and silver.
Improved efficiency
Citi said that together with an expected expansion of its FX eTrading hub and infrastructure in Singapore, the developments will enable clients to benefit from deeper liquidity and greater efficiency in executing FX transactions throughout the region.
“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 the Asia-Pacific, who prior to this would connect via Tokyo or one of our trading engines outside of the region,” said Stuart Staley, Asia Pacific head of markets and securities services at Citi.
“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,”
“Citi’s plans to expand its global FX pricing and trading engine to Singapore to better service its clients in the region are very much in line with MAS’ strategic industry initiative to enhance FX e-trading market infrastructure to support regional growth,” said Alan Yeo, head of financial markets development, MAS.
“Most of the market participants have located their Asian FX trading and dealing teams in Singapore, and a Singapore-based FX e-trading ecosystem will better support price discovery and efficient trade execution during Asian trading hours.”
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