SGX RMB futures debuts with over 1b yuan

In trading turnover and margin collateral.

Singapore Exchange (SGX) last Monday successfully launched the Chinese Renminbi (RMB) futures, namely USD/CNH and CNY/USD futures. Transactions in the new SGX RMB futures achieved a first day volume of 1,836 contracts or approximately RMB 1.1 billion in notional value (equivalent to US$180 million).

According to SGX, trading was robust with active participation from a diverse pool of counterparties. Market makers and key participants for the contracts include Bank of China Singapore branch (BOC), DBS Bank, ICBC Singapore branch (ICBC), Quantrun Investment Management and Virtu Financial.

In support of the product launch, more than RMB 1 billion cash has been deposited with SGX as margin collateral by market participants. This is in response to SGX’s initiative to add RMB cash collateral to its list of acceptable margin collateral. Market participants can now effectively use their RMB cash collateral to fund open positions of any product held with SGX-DC.

“As Singapore’s largest RMB business service provider, Bank of China is pleased to partner SGX as the pioneer market-maker for the newly launched RMB futures and to have executed the first trade. We will continue to leverage our expertise in RMB businesses to enable global investors to more easily invest in RMB futures,” said Guo Ning Ning, General Manager, BOC Singapore Branch.

Singapore is Asia’s largest FX market, and the largest offshore RMB clearing centre outside of Greater China. SGX’s suite of Asian FX futures, which has registered more than US$10 billion in aggregate notional value traded over the past 12 months, provides market participants with a regulated exchange platform for price discovery of key Asian currencies, promoting greater transparency and better serving investment and risk management needs in the Asian time zone.