Singapore woos banks in battle of Asia’s biggest forex hubs

Singapore has enticed UBS Group AG, Citigroup Inc, Standard Chartered Plc and JPMorgan Chase & Co. in the past year to set up FX pricing and trading engines so that investors can reduce the time lag from routing trades elsewhere.

SINGAPORE: Singapore saw its lead over Hong Kong shrink to just a whisker in the battle to be Asia’s biggest foreign-exchange currency hub. To keep its advantage, the island state wants to attract more companies to set up electronic trading platforms.

Average daily trading in Singapore jumped 22% to a record $633 billion in April from the same period in 2016, according to the latest survey by the Bank for International Settlements. That’s just ahead of Hong Kong’s $632 billion, as the Chinese city saw a 45% surge in daily transactions.