Marex has become the latest futures clearing and trading participant on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), the company announced today (Friday). It can now offer direct trading and clearing services to Australian wholesale investors, increasing competition in the heavily concentrated market.
Entering a Competitive Market
The company highlighted that currently, there are only a handful of market participants in Australia, and its membership will reduce counterparty risk management and increase depth in the market.
The new membership came under Marex's global clearing growth strategy. It opened its Australian office in December 2021 to bolster its growth in the Asia-Pacific. The group's net revenue from the region increased 49 percent in the first half of 2023.
Marex now offers clearing on 57 exchanges, holding more than $11.8 billion in customer assets at the end of June 2023.
"We are excited to become a trading and clearing member of the ASX," said Paolo Tonucci, the Chief Strategist & CEO of Capital Markets at Marex. "As part of our growing footprint in the Asia Pacific, this marks an important step in our strategy to increase our capabilities to connect clients to markets in new ways across more geographies."
Expanding Services
Marex is headquartered in the United Kingdom with a diversified financial services business around liquidity, market access, and infrastructure services. Its clients are in energy, commodities, and financial markets. In July, the group onboarded Graham Francis as the Chief Operating Officer who came onboard from TP ICAP.
The Marex Group additionally acquired Cowen's prime brokerage and outsourced trading business earlier this year.
"As a global independent non-bank, we have a strong balance sheet to support our full-service, on-the-ground Australian team, and our clients can trade with greater confidence with our end-to-end offering," said Thomas Texier, the Head of Clearing at Marex.
"The Australian market has been overly concentrated for some time, and our entrance will add competition and fill the void left by major banks departing the market for futures clearing."
