Singapore overtook Japan to become the biggest Asian foreign-exchange
centre and the third largest in the world after London and New York,
said the latest survey from the Bank for International Settlements
(BIS).
The survey, which is conducted every three
years, shows that Singapore’s average daily foreign-exchange volume
increased 44 percent to 383 billion USD as of April this year from 266
billion USD in the same month in 2010.
Meanwhile,
according to the Singapore Foreign Exchange Market Committee (SFEMC),
the average daily foreign-exchange volume in Singapore was 381 billion
USD in April 2013, a 6 percent rise from October last year.
Despite surging trade over the last three years, foreign-exchange
trade in Singapore is one-seventh the size of that in the UK, and less
than a third of that in the US.
The UK has 41 percent of the global market, followed by the US with 19 percent.
Singapore has a 5.7 percent global share, followed by Japan’s 5.6 percent and Hong Kong’s 4.1 percent, said the BIS.-VNA