SGX is prescient in seeing its future in futures

THE late Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew had often emphasised that what Singapore lacks in numbers and size, it must make up for in quality. The city-state has to stay two, three steps ahead of problems. That way, they can be more manageable.

Singapore Exchange's (SGX) latest organisation revamp, its second under chief executive Loh Boon Chye, in June appears to be that tactical move to stay relevant and adapt to new realities facing the capital markets, not just in Singapore, but globally.

The stock exchange of today is no longer just about facilitating the trading of shares of companies which had sought public listing to raise capital to expand their business. The best days of simply being a stock exchange are in the past, when they were monopolies and could make money easily. Profits from this traditional role have been slipping fast amid competition from new exchanges, technology advancement and the increase in preference for private equity markets, among others.