Standard Chartered Bank has announced the completion of its first foreign exchange (FX) e-trade using its newly established FX e-pricing engine in Singapore. The bank says that reduced latency in the trade execution was significant.

In June 2019, the bank announced its plan to establish the e-engine in the first quarter of 2020, with support from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). The inaugural trade was executed with the bank’s counterparty, United Overseas Bank (UOB). Using the e-trading engine, Standard Chartered says it achieved a reduction in trade latency of over 80%.

The first trade, conducted from 3:15 pm on 20 January in Singapore, delivered a 40% increase in trading volume compared to the average daily volume in the same time period last week. Estimated profitability generated from the trading volume rose more than 30%.

“This is a key milestone for Standard Chartered in support of MAS’s goal to enable more efficient access to liquidity in the Singapore FX market,” said Michele Wee, head of Financial Markets Singapore at Standard Chartered Bank. “As one of the major FX participants in Singapore, we remain committed to leveraging this new solution to effectively serve our clients’ currency and commodities needs by offering them a seamless and consistent pricing experience for their hedging requirements. Our clients have a keen interest in going digital - FX e-trading volumes continue to grow year-on-year. In 2019, we have seen a 30% uplift in spot trading volumes via our e-channels. With the enhanced efficiency proven by this trade using the new e-trading and pricing engine, we expect this positive trajectory to continue.”

Standard Chartered’s e-trading engine offers 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, as well as commodities e-trading for both precious and base metals.

The bank now operates four e-trading engines across the world, in London, New York, Tokyo and Singapore.