The Singapore Exchange (SGX) has confirmed that its new S$250 million (US$195 million) trading platform SGX Reach, developed by exchange group Nasdaq OMX, will go live on 15 August 2011.
The new platform has recorded order response speeds of 90 microseconds and can handle one million order book changes per second, which SGX says is one hundred times faster than its current trading engine.
SGX Reach is part of a series of infrastructure investments and rule changes that the exchange has made to appeal to international investors and become a gateway for trading into the rest of Asia.
As part of the project, SGX also plans to establish a presence at data centres in Chicago, London, New York and Tokyo to lower cross-border connectivity costs and facilitate low-latency strategies by international trading firms.
“Reach will provide our customers with leading-edge services delivered on a high-speed platform and driven by world-class technology,” said SGX CEO Magnus Böcker. “The availability of our diversified products suite on Reach will help Singapore leap ahead of other global financial markets as a centre for international fund-raising and investment.”
The exchange plans to rollout co-location services during Q1 2011, which will enable SGX members to locate their servers as close to the exchange's matching engine as possible in order to reduce latency. Around 40% of SGX members have already signed up to the service.
Co-location capabilities will be offered via a new purpose-built data centre at the Keppel Digihub in Singapore, which is currently under development and which will also house SGX's trading, market data and clearing infrastructure.
On 27 December 2010, the exchange proposed adding remote membership capabilities, which would allow foreign investors to trade directly on SGX without having to go through domestic intermediaries.
SGX is also planning a takeover of the Australian Securities Exchange, a deal that is currently under scrutiny by regulators in each country. If successful, the SGX/ASX combined market would be the fifth largest exchange group by market capitalisation globally.