Singapore’s foreign exchange (FX) average daily trading volumes (ADTV) rose 45% y-o-y to US$929 billion ($1.31 trillion) in April 2022, retaining the city-state’s position as the third-largest FX centre in the world, behind the UK and the US.
According to the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), Singapore’s share of global FX volumes also rose 1.8 percentage points y-o-y to 9.5% in April.
The figures were released on Oct 27 in the 2022 Triennial Central Bank Survey of the global FX and over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives market conducted by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). The survey was conducted among MAS, along with other central banks and authorities in 51 other jurisdictions.
In the survey, Singapore’s FX ADTV growth was broad-based across the major currencies, led by the US dollar (USD), Japanese yen (JPY) and Euro, which registered trading volume increases of between 39% and 50% from 2019 to 2022. This was followed by the Chinese yuan (RMB) and the Singapore dollar (SGD), said the central bank in its Oct 28 release.
Spot, forwards and FX swaps, which account for over 90% of Singapore’s turnover, rose in volume by between 46% and 50%.
Options turnover grew by 25% while currency swaps volumes declined by 14%.
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In April 2022, Singapore’s OTC interest rate derivatives volumes averaged US$156 billion a day, which was up by 34% y-o-y. The USD, Korean won (KRW) and Australian dollar (AUD) interest rate derivatives were the most actively traded in the Singapore market.
Lim Cheng Khai, executive director of MAS’s financial markets development department, says, “The strong growth in FX volumes in the last three years is a direct outcome of concerted efforts by key FX industry players to set up electronic FX trading and matching engines in Singapore. This provides market participants with enhanced liquidity and robust FX execution capabilities.”
He adds: “MAS will continue to work closely with the industry to deepen the e-FX ecosystem, to better serve growing interest by global market participants to execute FX trades in the Asian time zone.”
