US investment bank, Goldman Sachs Group Inc, said on Tuesday (29 Sept) that it has joined peers with JPMorgan Chase & Co, and BNP Paribas SA to build foreign-exchange trading and pricing engine in Singapore, with the support of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).
Bloomberg reported that the FX trading platform is expected to go live in the first quarter of 2021, with Singapore marks the company’s fourth global currency pricing engine. Goldman also operates trading hubs in London, Tokyo and New York.
“We continue to actively develop our presence in Singapore and have seen consistent growth of our franchise here over a number of years in both FX and broader global markets,” said E.G. Morse, Chief Executive of Goldman Sachs Singapore Pte.
Goldman’s global head of electronic FX distribution, David Wilkins, noted that the investment company is at “the forefront of innovation in Asian currencies”.
“This is particularly true in non-deliverable forwards (NDFs) where we maintain a market leading position, having been the first bank to develop an NDF execution algo for our clients.
“It makes perfect sense for us to be part of this initiative and to further develop the FX market ecosystem in Singapore, and Asia as a whole,” said Mr Wilkins.
Apart from the three financial institutions, BNY Mellon, Deutsche Bank, and Barclays also joined the initiative to roll out the FX trading system in Singapore, which is part of the MAS’ strategy to enhance Singapore’s status as the leading FX trading centre in Asia Pacific, as reported by The Trade News.
“We welcome this partnership with Goldman Sachs, which is aligned with our strategy to grow a critical mass of players and liquidity for APAC buy-side players to gain efficient pricing and execution, and strengthen Singapore’s standing as a global FX centre,” said executive director for financial markets development at MAS, Gillian Tan.
Meanwhile, the latest data from the Bank for International Settlements shown that the city-state’s currency market recorded average trading volumes of $633 billion a day in April 2019, which is higher than Hong Kong and Japan.
