Banks should recognise Asia's growing FX stature

Singapore

ON ANY given day recently, more than US$1.3 trillion in currencies would have been traded in the major Asian financial centres of Singapore, Hong Kong and Tokyo - much of it before the traditional FX centre, London, has woken up.

With its central location and time zone, well-established laws and regulations and the presence of top-tier trading infrastructures, London has acquired an enviable level of global reach and influence as a foreign exchange capital. According to the last Bank for International Settlements survey, London's FX daily trading volume was a staggering US$2.406 trillion, nearly double that of nearest rival New York.