Participating banks are expecting to reach more foreign exchange clients in Asia with a Symphony/WeChat partnership, which allows users to communicate in real time within a regulatory compliant framework. Symphony, a financial market messaging services provider, launched an application within Chinese app WeChat in November 2019. Four banks – BNP Paribas, Citi, Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs – have started offering pre-trade services such as RMB exchange rates via WeChat. The collaboration

Standard Chartered has executed the first trade using its electronic foreign exchange trading engine in Singapore, achieving a reduction in trade latency of more than 80%, the bank said on January 22. The trade, conducted on January 20 in Singapore, was with Standard Chartered’s counterparty, United Overseas Bank. Standard Chartered previously said it would set up an electronic currency pricing and trading engine in Singapore, after Citi and UBS announced plans to do so last year. JP Morgan

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE PDF (only available to FX Week Corporate subscribers) The euro is poised to appreciate steadily throughout 2020, as markets lift the currency closer to its long-run fundamentals and major uncertainties dissipate, says Shaun Osborne, chief FX strategist at Scotiabank. The Canadian bank topped FX Week’s three-month G10 forecast table this week. “We estimate that EUR/USD should be trading at 1.14 currently, based on its long-run fundamental drivers, while we expect the

Asia is not necessarily less prepared than other jurisdictions when it comes to the final phases of the delayed initial margin (IM) rules, says John Ball, managing director of the global FX division for Asia-Pacific at the Global Financial Markets Association (GFMA). However, there are still small counterparties that are less prepared than others as they are not so aware of the incoming regime, he adds, and questions remain as to how many smaller firms will be affected. “It’s not clear what

The introduction of retail central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) could bring a slew of issues for central banks, according to Anand Sinha, former deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). Sinha believes much of the talk about retail CBDCs is currently “overhyped” since hardly any central banks are looking to introduce them at present. The scenario from a medium- to long-term perspective could be different though, as many are carrying out research, he adds. Any design of a retail