SINGAPORE, Sept 17 — Singapore’s average daily foreign exchange (FX) trading volume reached a new high of US$633 billion (RM2.64 trillion) in April 2019, up 22 per cent from US$517 billion in April 2016, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) announced today.
The republic retained its position as one of the largest FX centres globally, and was ranked third with a 7.6 per cent share of global FX volume in April 2019.
These figures were released today in the 2019 Triennial Central Bank Survey of the global FX and over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives markets conducted by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS).
“MAS is heartened to see continued robust growth in Singapore’s FX and OTC derivatives turnover across many currencies,” said its deputy managing director Jacqueline Loh in a statement here.
“This is a good reflection of the diversity of market participants in the Singapore FX ecosystem,” said Loh.
She noted that global and regional FX players continue to expand their regional footprint in Singapore and are investing heavily in building up their skills and trading infrastructure, including in FX e-trading.
“We expect these investments to bear fruit in the medium term and further improve the trading landscape for market participants and enhance price discovery, liquidity and transparency in the Asian time zone,” she said.
According to MAS, the growth in Singapore’s FX market was broad-based across G10 and emerging market currencies, reflecting Singapore’s standing as a well-diversified international financial centre.
The top five traded currencies in Singapore were the US dollar, Japanese yen, Euro, Australian dollar and Singapore dollar, with trading volumes rising between 24 per cent to 45 per cent, with the exception of the Japanese yen, which posted a 4.0 per cent decline in volume.
In terms of FX instruments, spot and FX swaps turnover increased strongly by 26 per cent and 35 per cent respectively over the two survey periods.
FX options and currency swaps increased by 9.0 per cent and 6.0 per cent in volume respectively, while forwards turnover declined 6.0 per cent from 2016 to 2019.
FX swaps accounted for 53 per cent of average daily turnover, up from 48 per cent in 2016, followed by spot (24 per cent) and forwards (15 per cent).
Singapore’s OTC interest rate derivatives market continued to register strong growth, with average daily volumes surging 87 per cent to US$109 billion in April 2019, compared to US$58 billion in April 2016.
The most actively traded instruments in Singapore were Australian dollar (32 per cent), US dollar (21 per cent), and Singapore dollar (9.0 per cent) interest rate derivatives. — Bernama
