Singapore Exchange (SGX) today 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 1,846 contracts or approximately RMB 1.1 billion in notional value (equivalent to US$180 million). 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.
We congratulate SGX on the successful launch of its RMB futures and are pleased to have done the first trade on screen today. This contract provides a tool to manage FX risk and increases trading opportunities around China related products. We believe Singapore to be the major offshore centre for RMB and we will continue to participate in this market, said Darren Wang, CEO, Quantrun Investment Management.
We are delighted to be supporting the launch of RMB futures in Singapore as a market-maker for the USD/CNH and CNY/USD currency pairs. To support the trading of Asian FX futures in Singapore, we are also a market-maker for other Asian FX futures including USD/SGD, THB/USD, KRW/USD and INR/USD. The trading of Asian FX futures on SGX offers investors a seamless way to manage their risks, said Andrew Ng, Group Head of Treasury and Markets, DBS Bank.
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.