BNY Mellon launches FX trading desk in Singapore

Primary G10 currencies will be focused on.

BNY Mellon officially opened a new foreign exchange (FX) dealing room in Singapore. The new FX trading desk will focus on primary G10 currencies in addition to Korean Won.

The new dealing room comprises an initial team of nine under the leadership of Keon Ho Kang, who has relocated to Singapore from BNY Mellon’s Seoul branch as Head of FX Trading for Singapore. Kang joined BNY Mellon in 2010 from Woori Securities and reports into Richard Gill, Global Co-Head of FX Trading, based in London, and Mark Militello, Head of BNY Mellon’s Asia-Pacific Global Markets business, based in Hong Kong. Prior to Woori, Kang spent 12 years with Citibank at their Korean and Singapore offices. The new G10 dealing team joins the company’s 30-strong global markets operations team which is based in Singapore.

“Singapore has emerged as a core global financial centre,” observes BNY Mellon’s Gill. “It therefore makes strategic sense to establish a desk in Singapore, particularly given its growing status as the largest FX trading location in Asia-Pacific.”

FX trading in Singapore is one-seventh the size of that in the United Kingdom and less than a third of the United States total. The UK has 41% of the global market, followed by the US with 19%, according to the Bank of International Settlements (BIS), the record-keeper of the world’s central banks. Singapore is the world’s third largest FX trading centre with 5.7% share, followed by Japan’s 5.6% and Hong Kong’s 4.1%.

BNY Mellon believes Singapore will continue to grow over the next five years. Data from the Monetary Authority of Singapore shows how far Singapore has already come in a very short space of time. The latest available data from BIS (published in February 2014) showed that the city’s average daily FX volume increased to US$383 billion as of April 2013, up from $266 billion in the same month in 2010.

“Singapore’s rapid ascendancy to become the dominant FX trading hub in Asia-Pacific is not unexpected given its well-placed time-zone and robust financial infrastructure,” observes BNY Mellon’s Militello. “The increasing importance of Asian currencies and the sharp increase in Chinese renminbi (RMB) trading in particular, is expected to fuel a steady rise in trading volumes in Singapore.” 

Militello added: “Local incentives from the Monetary Authority of Singapore have seen a recent surge in the number of fund managers domiciled in Singapore, and we expect that to continue to grow. Accordingly, I expect we will continue to see further investment in Singapore by FX providers in respect of new jobs and technology, as it is important and fitting that these services are provided locally.”

With foreign exchange sales and trading desks in Hong Kong, Tokyo, Taipei and Shanghai, as well as New York, Boston, Pittsburgh, London and Brussels, BNY Mellon Global Markets has access to more than 100 countries, and is recognised by industry publications as a global leader in FX research and FX technology.