Standard Chartered Bank plans to establish a Foreign Exchange (FX) e-trading and pricing engine in Singapore to be launched with support from the local regulator, Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), by Q1 2020.The new Singapore FX e-trading infrastructure will provide clients in the region more convenient access to the liquidity 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.
Michele Wee, Head of Financial Markets Singapore, at Standard Chartered Bank said:
“Singapore continues to be the major FX hub in the world. E-trading take-up rates are very high amongst our clients; we have seen our FX e-trading volumes grow by 40% year-on-year. Through our new e-trading platform, clients in Asia can enjoy enhanced FX trading efficiency and improved liquidity. We can also offer them a more seamless experience and consistent pricing to meet their hedging requirements.
“Having recently fully consolidated our businesses into one entity in Singapore, this latest initiative underscores our continued commitment to working with Singapore to further develop the financial market and enhancing our FX offerings from our Singapore subsidiary. I am confident our collaboration with MAS will yield success and enable our clients to efficiently access Singapore liquidity.”
Gillian Tan, Executive Director, Financial Markets Development Department, at Monetary Authority of Singapore, said:
“We welcome Standard Chartered Bank’s decision to launch its new FX e-trading engine in Singapore. 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. This new platform will enable Standard Chartered to seamlessly support its clients’ FX needs and contribute to the sustained growth and development of Singapore’s financial hub to serve growing regional needs for risk management.”
The new e-trading engine adds to Standard Chartered’s infrastructures in London, New York, and Tokyo.
In late 2018, Advanced Markets signed Standard Chartered Bank as a foreign exchange prime broker for its Direct Market Access (DMA/STP) liquidity infrastructure.
The bank has recently made the headlines for not so great news. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) fined Standard Chartered £102,163,200 for Anti-Money Laundering (AML) breaches in two higher risk areas of its business. This is the second largest financial penalty for AML controls failings ever imposed by the FCA.
