(Singapore, 18 September 2019) The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has announced that Singapore’s average daily foreign exchange (FX) trading volume reached a new high of US$633 billion in April 2019, up 22% from US$517 billion in April 2016.
Singapore retains its position as one of the largest FX centres globally – ranked third with a 7.6% share of global FX volume in April 2019. These figures have been released 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).
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% to 45%, with the exception of the Japanese yen, which posted a 4% decline in volume.
In terms of FX instruments, spot and FX swaps turnover increased strongly by 26% and 35% respectively over the two survey periods. FX options and currency swaps increased by 9% and 6% in volume respectively, while forwards turnover declined 6% from 2016 to 2019. FX swaps accounted for 53% of average daily turnover, up from 48% in 2016, followed by spot (24%) and forwards (15%).
Singapore’s OTC interest rate derivatives market continued to register strong growth, with average daily volumes surging 87% 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%), US dollar (21%), and Singapore dollar (9%) interest rate derivatives.
Ms Jacqueline Loh, Deputy Managing Director, MAS, said, “MAS is heartened to see continued robust growth in Singapore’s FX and OTC derivatives turnover across many currencies. “
“This is a good reflection of the diversity of market participants in the Singapore FX ecosystem. 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,” she said, noting that MAS expects 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.
MAS, together with central banks and other authorities in 52 other jurisdictions, conducted a survey of turnover in the global FX and OTC derivatives markets in April 2019.
Coordinated by the BIS, this global effort is undertaken every three years with the aim of increasing the transparency of OTC markets and helping market participants, infrastructure providers, central banks and other authorities to monitor developments in global financial markets.
It is a comprehensive source of information on the size of global FX and OTC derivatives markets, covering FX spot, FX forwards, FX swaps, currency swaps, FX options and interest rate derivatives. MAS obtained the data from 75 financial institutions in Singapore for the survey.
