Equinix Sparks FX Trading Growth in Singapore
- By CDOTrends editors
- March 16, 2020
Equinix’s FX ecosystem is providing the foundations for FX trading in Singapore.
FX traders such as Euronext FX, Jump Trading, Lucera, Orient Futures and Spark Systems, and major banks with FX operations in Singapore, are using the ecosystem to trade in the global USD 6.6 trillion-a-day FX market.
The moves follow the unveiling of Singapore’s Financial Services Industry Transformation Map in 2017 by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). Singapore is the third largest FX center in the world, with a 7.6% share of the global FX volume in April 2019.
One of the big reasons for the growth spurt is the demand for reliable, low-latency interconnection for instant and direct access to key financial markets in the Asia-Pacific region.
“As Singapore pushes forward with its plans to further grow its FX industry, the demand for interconnection continues to rise. Equinix has always ensured the high performance, ultra-low latency and scale required by the country's enterprises, including the many financial services firms that make up our customer portfolio,” says John Knuff, vice president for global financial services at Equinix.
The Equinix FX ecosystem will play a crucial role in supporting the local financial services industry by executing trades more efficiently. It looks to close the millisecond gap between Singapore and its foreign counterparts where investors exchange USD 640 billion of average daily trading volume.
The FX trading ecosystem is located within Equinix’s International Business Exchange (IBX) data center campus in Singapore.
Equinix predicts high growth of interconnection bandwith capacity in Singapore, which measures direct and private data exchange between businesses.
According to the latest Global Interconnection Index (GXI), an annual market study published by Equinix, the interconnection bandwidth will expand at 47% Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) from 2018 to 2022, as data increases in volume and complexity. Securities and trading in Asia-Pacific will lead the growth (66% CAGR) in all regions worldwide.
"Singapore is one of the largest FX centers in the world, generating high volumes of data as trade volume continues to soar,” says Yee May Leong, managing director for Equinix South Asia.
“With more demand for low-latency solutions in FX and bond markets, we are confident that Equinix’s mature FX ecosystem in the country will create more opportunities for major banks, financial services institutes and retail FX brokers both regionally and globally to interconnect on a fast, secure and reliable platform, bringing Singapore’s FX industry to the next frontier,” she adds.
Photo credit: iStockphoto/thomasandreas