XTX Markets is building an electronic foreign exchange (FX) pricing and trading engine in Singapore after gaining support from the country’s financial regulator.
The London-based market maker said the move is part of its expansion into Asian FX markets and the engine will go live in Equinix’s Singapore SG1 data centre in June this year.
Head of distribution for Asia at XTX Markets, Wai Kin Chan, explained the firm will work closely with its key counterparties in designing, developing and implementing the new FX trading system.
“With Singapore being the largest FX centre in Asia, we see huge potential in the Asian FX market as the uptake in electronic trading and increase in Spot and NDF currencies traded in the region continues,” Chan said.
XTX Markets added that the engine will improve eFX trading for its counterparties in the region, while increasing participation rates and volumes for eFX activity conducted in Singapore to benefit the regional FX ecosystem.
“XTX, as the first liquidity provider to set up an FX trading engine in Singapore following our ITM initiative, is an affirmation of our eFX vision and we will continue to work with other global liquidity providers and platforms to grow the ecosystem in Singapore for Asia,” Alan Yeo, executive director for the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), commented.
“Under the financial services industry transformation map (ITM) introduced in October 2017, MAS aims to enhance the e-FX trading infrastructure to improve market transparency and facilitate price discovery of FX trading in the Asian time zone.”