One of the leading FX prime brokers in the world, JPMorgan, is preparing to deploy a new FX trading and pricing engine in Singapore. The company is planning to expand its presence in Asia, as the race for the region’s top financial center continues.
With the rising tensions in Hong Kong, the company’s step to recommit to its Asia Pacific hub in Singapore comes at the right time to further boost the central position of the island city-state as the region’s leading FX trading center.
The new hub is launched with the support of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and is designed to speed up trade Execution speeds for the company’s clients in the area. The official timeline provided by JPMorgan states that the official launch is set for the first quarter of 2020. The new trading engine will become the company’s 4th electronic FX trading infrastructure hub globally.
The move enables improved transaction speeds for FX transactions across multiple geographical hubs, namely JPMorgan’s other three locations in New York, London, and Tokyo. The new platform in Singapore will cover spot FX and precious metals transactions.
Commenting on the company’s new infrastructure play, the Head of Asia Currencies and Emerging Markets trading at JPMorgan, Sudhanshu Sanadhya, said: “Singapore remains J.P. Morgan’s long-standing FX hub in Asia Pacific and this partnership with MAS will improve client experience through reduced latency in trade execution and greater price transparency.”
The company sees an increasing potential for eFX trading in the region to grow further. “Singapore will benefit from the flows and we see this initiative consolidating Singapore’s position as Asia’s leading FX trading center,” said Sanadhya.
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.
JPMorgan’s move attracted praise from the MAS as the regulator seeks to continue driving the attractiveness of Singapore as the top destination for financial services in Asia-Pacific.
“A number of top-tier global players are building out their electronic trading and pricing engines here, which is strong validation and endorsement of Singapore as a global FX center. With the growth in Asia’s FX trading needs and increasing demand for more efficient price discovery in the Asian time-zone, regional market participants will benefit from better connectivity and latency,” said Gillian Tan, Executive Director, Financial Markets Development Department, MAS.
