Singapore Exchange (SGX) has been named “Best FX Exchange in Asia” and “Best FX Clearing House in Asia” at the FX Markets Asia Awards 2021, based on voting and review by a panel of judges comprising representatives from banks, asset management houses, investment funds and trading firms, respectively.
The awards recognise the best-in-class across the FX industry in the Asia-Pacific region that have demonstrated unique and innovative ways to respond to industry needs, arising especially from disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. This is the fourth consecutive year that SGX has been voted by the FX community as Asia’s Best FX Exchange.
The win is testament to SGX’s robust and resilient trading, risk management and clearing capabilities, especially during heightened market volatility. As the largest and most liquid FX derivatives marketplace in Asia, SGX provides international investors with a trusted venue to manage currency risks round-the-clock, as well as solutions to navigate global regulatory changes such as the Uncleared Margin Rules (UMR) aimed at reducing the risks of over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives.
Commenting on SGX’s differentiating factors, the panel of judges for the Best FX Clearing House award remarked, “SGX offers derivatives products that allow market participants to hedge investments against volatility across multiple client front-end systems, and the ease of this access is a clear differentiator for them. Having innovative products such as the SGX FlexC FX Futures also gives clients the option to move from traditionally OTC FX trading to listed FX products to reduce stress on their financial books.”
Lee Beng Hong, Head of Fixed Income, Currencies and Commodities at SGX, said, “We are grateful for the industry’s support and recognition that has led us to win this award again. The FX market is the largest and most liquid financial market in the world, but also a highly fragmented one that is still largely OTC. Building upon our successful FX futures franchise, we are now onto the next phase of growth for our FX business – to build Asia’s largest one-stop integrated FX ecosystem and marketplace to facilitate global access to OTC and on-exchange currency derivatives.”
SGX has been making strategic investments to enlarge its FX business to meet the growing needs of market participants. It acquired BidFX, a leading cloud-based FX trading platform for institutional investors, in 2020, and recently announced the acquisition of MaxxTrader, a leading provider of FX pricing and risk solutions for sell-side institutions including banks and broker-dealers as well as a multi-dealer platform for hedge funds. SGX will set up by this year an Electronic Communication Network (ECN) FX marketplace, anchored in Singapore, the world’s third largest and Asia’s largest FX hub.
