Barclays Expands FX Footprint in Singapore with Launch of New FX Trading and Pricing Engine

Barclays announced that it will deploy its latest FX trading and pricing engine in Singapore, under the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s (MAS) FX Trading Hub strategy. This marks Barclays’ latest milestone as it continues to strengthen its FX presence in Asia Pacific.

Barclays will be building out a local instance of BARX, one of the leading FX trading systems globally. This will include the rollout of the latest BARX Direct technology which combines next-generation pricing algorithms with ultra-low latency co-location connectivity. With the BARX infrastructure being based in Singapore, local and regional market participants will be able to leverage existing BARX functionality while benefitting from increased price discovery, lower latency and improved quality of execution.

Furthermore, BARX Direct for 1-month Non Deliverable Forwards (NDFs) will provide tighter and more accurate prices with reduced latency through localised co-location client connectivity and price discovery.

In discussing the benefits for clients, Cameron Booth, Head of eFICC Distribution Asia, said, “This move delivers a substantial enhancement to our product delivery here in Singapore and across the APAC region. Significantly improved latency, and our next generation pricing, execution and algorithms will drive growth and strengthen our broad client franchise in Asia.”

Scheduled to be launched in mid-2021, the new FX trading and pricing engine will be Barclays’ fourth electronic FX trading hub globally, adding to its existing platforms in New York, London and Tokyo.

James Hassett, Co-Head of Global Emerging Markets & G10 Linear FX, and Head of Flow Macro Trading, Asia, who relocated to Singapore from London in August 2020, said, “The deployment demonstrates our increased commitment to our clients in Singapore and in the region. FX is an important growth area for the firm globally and critically this takes us from a 3-hub model to a 4-hub model”, referring to the addition of Singapore to its existing hubs in New York, London and Tokyo.

Bal Bagary, Singapore Country Manager, added, “Singapore is a key trading centre globally for Barclays and the financial markets at large. We are very excited about this new ecosystem that the MAS has built in Singapore. Barclays is proud to be a part of the initiative and this will help further push Singapore as one of the world’s premier financial centres.”

This partnership with MAS is part of the central bank’s strategic initiative to cement Singapore’s position as the top FX trading centre in Asia Pacific.

Gillian Tan, Executive Director, Financial Markets Development, at MAS, said, “We are very happy to welcome Barclays to Singapore’s fast-growing FX e-trading ecosystem. Singapore is well-placed to serve the strong institutional FX flows in Asia, and we are heartened to see continued strong interest from top FX players to set up their regional pricing and matching engines in Singapore. I am confident that Barclays’ set-up in Singapore will enable it to offer more efficient price discovery and better execution to its clients.”

BARX is Barclays’ cross-asset electronic trading platform, which enables clients to optimize execution performance by accessing deep pools of liquidity through Barclays innovative and evolving trading technology solutions. Clients can trade with BARX across equities, fixed income, futures and FX.

* Period covering Q114 – Q220. Pre 2014 financials were not restated following re-segmentation in Q116

Source: Barclays