New foreign exchange (FX) trading hub in Singapore could contribute billions of dollars to Singapore’s economy by shaving milliseconds off currency trades
LONDON, UK – July 29, 2021 – Equinix, Inc. (NASDAQ:EQIX, news, filings), the world’s digital infrastructure company™, and Options, a leading provider of Ultra-Low Latency (ULL) connectivity to the financial services (FS) markets, today announced they have joined forces to provide increased connectivity and low latency services to a global top-tier investment bank.
Reducing geographical latency through the implementation of a new FX hub will speed up the FX trading process for customers, providing them with a key competitive edge. The development also supports Singapore’s position as the third-largest FX location globally, with projections suggesting shaving milliseconds off currency trades could contribute billions of dollars to Singapore’s economy.
Options is deployed with Equinix in 18 of its International Business Exchange™ (IBX®) sites, across 12 metros, with this project marking the fourth FX trading deployment from Options at Equinix—existing FX hubs reside in London (LD4), New York (NY4) and Tokyo (TY3). Supporting an initiative from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to improve latency for FX trading within Singapore, roundtrip latency for price matching orders should now be negligible, as compared to a current 70-80 millisecond delay between Singapore and Tokyo, and 220 milliseconds between Tokyo and New York.
Together, Equinix and Options are expanding the FX footprint into Singapore to improve liquidity and price discovery during Asian trading hours, via Equinix’s SG1 IBX. Connecting through Equinix data centres will also help customers improve price transparency and facilitate more efficient price discovery, avoiding higher rejections or unwarranted risk to market makers.
John Knuff, Vice President, Business Development, Equinix noted: “With Singapore becoming a major global FX hub, Equinix is excited to be working in collaboration with Options to facilitate global FX trading in a secure and low latency environment. In an increasingly competitive industry, businesses need to make sure their IT infrastructure is capable of real-time trading and price matching. With Equinix’s FX hubs also situated in London, New York and Tokyo, our platform provides connectivity between these key regions of the world.”
The new FX trading platform will be housed in a dedicated area in SG1 for FX clients. SG1 is one of the most connected data centres in the world, and offers a diverse ecosystem of participants with multiple connectivity options to more than 230 carriers and 700+ companies, supported between multiple locations with enhanced security. By leveraging Platform Equinix® in Singapore, Options can provide its customers with an interconnection-rich environment for low latency and high security FX trading at the digital edge.
Danny Moore, President and CEO, Options added: “We are delighted to be able to work in partnership with Equinix to deliver this service extension. Singapore is the third-largest FX location globally, and as such, is a region we have continued to prioritise for our own growth over the past number of years. It is fantastic that a client is expanding its FX footprint in the region through Options.”
Highlights/Key Facts
- In 2019, Options became one of the first managed service providers to have attained Platinum Partner Status with Equinix. The company provides high-performance managed trading infrastructure and cloud-enabled managed services to over 250 firms globally, providing an agile, scalable platform in an investment bank grade cybersecurity wrapper.
- Platform Equinix is home to a comprehensive financial services ecosystem connecting exchanges, electronic payments firms, capital market participants and insurers, facilitating the interconnection of countless financial IT workloads across global financial markets. In Singapore, multi-asset trading platforms including Euronext FX, Singapore Exchange BidFX, XTX Markets, and ICE Global Network, as well as major banks with FX operations in Singapore, have joined Equinix’s trading ecosystem. Market participants in the region can take advantage of close proximity to hundreds of networks, enabling them to reduce network latency and enhance trading performance for their customers.
Additional Resources
- Building the Ecosystem for Digital Banking to Flourish [blog]
- Learn more about Platform Equinix® [website]
- Learn more about Options [Equinix forum]
- Singapore Spurs Development of FX Trading Hub & Ecosystem [Equinix forum]
About Equinix
Equinix (NASDAQ: EQIX) is the world’s digital infrastructure company, enabling digital leaders to harness a trusted platform to bring together and interconnect the foundational infrastructure that powers their success. Equinix enables today’s businesses to access all the right places, partners and possibilities they need to accelerate advantage. With Equinix, they can scale with agility, speed the launch of digital services, deliver world-class experiences and multiply their value.
About Options
Options is the leading provider of cloud-enabled managed services to the global capital markets. Founded in 1993, the company began life as a hedge fund technology services provider. More than a decade ago, the company made a strategic decision to become the first provider to offer cloud services to the financial sector. Today over 250 firms globally leverage the Options platform, including the leading global investment banks, hedge funds, funds of funds, proprietary trading firms, market makers, broker/dealers, private equity houses and exchanges.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from expectations discussed in such forward-looking statements. Factors that might cause such differences include, but are not limited to, the challenges of acquiring, operating and constructing IBX® data centers and developing, deploying and delivering Equinix products and solutions; unanticipated costs or difficulties relating to the integration of companies we have acquired or will acquire into Equinix; a failure to receive significant revenues from customers in recently built out or acquired data centers; a failure to complete any financing arrangements contemplated from time to time; competition from existing and new competitors; the ability to generate sufficient cash flow or otherwise obtain funds to repay new or outstanding indebtedness; the loss or decline in business from our key customers; risks related to our taxation as a REIT; and other risks described from time to time in Equinix filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In particular, see recent Equinix quarterly and annual reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, copies of which are available upon request from Equinix. Equinix does not assume any obligation to update the forward-looking information contained in this press release.
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Equinix Media Contact (Asia-Pacific)
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Equinix
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cnewcom@equinix.com
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