Chinese-backed trading futures brokerage firm Orient Futures International (Singapore) Pte. Ltd. (“Orient Futures Singapore”) will set up subsidiaries in Europe and the United States within five years, obtain more trading and clearing memberships of derivatives exchanges, and strengthen the partnerships with exchanges in Brazil, the Middle East, South Korea, and other markets.
CEO of Orient Futures Singapore, Marcus Goi, revealed the company’s plans in an exclusive interview with Lianhe Zaobao. He also mentioned that the company will apply for Singapore’s capital market securities license and asset management license in 2023. This is to increase the product offerings by the company to provide a more comprehensive service for institutions and high-net-worth clients in Singapore.
“Our Singapore team currently have 36 people. We hope that there will not be more than 80 employees globally in the future, as some of the support work for overseas subsidiaries can be done by the Singapore office. This can help control cost, and improve productivity, and competitiveness.” Marcus shared.
Orient Futures International (Singapore), which serves professional clients, is now connected to three futures exchanges in Singapore, as well as exchanges in Chicago, London, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Sydney, and Kuala Lumpur.
The company was established in Singapore in September 2018 and is a direct wholly-owned subsidiary of Shanghai Orient Futures Co., Ltd. Within 15 months of its establishment, the company has completed foundational and operational work, including forming a professional team, applying for and obtaining licenses to provide capital market services such as OTC Derivatives, OTC Derivatives and Leveraged Foreign Exchange Trading. It also became a Trading and Clearing Member of the SGX derivatives exchange on 2 January 2020. But the pandemic struck unexpectedly, and it continues today.
Nonetheless, Marcus revealed that Orient Futures International (Singapore) continues to expand its business, and it achieved double-digit percentage growth in revenue and trading volume every year. It also became a Trading and Clearing member of ICE Futures Singapore this year.
“Over the past 3 years, we have gained many valuable experiences from addressing the different challenges. Now that the pandemic situation has improved, plus the further opening up of China’s capital market, Orient Futures Singapore is ready to take off and scale new heights. ” Marcus said.
In particular, he pointed out that more than 90% of the Singapore team is local Singaporeans, and many of them are bilingual and bicultural. This will help the company to further expand into the international and Chinese markets. Moreover, one of the company’s advantages is its understanding of the international markets. With more than 90% of the company’s customer base being international clients, Orient Futures Singapore can leverage its advantage and connect these clients to the Chinese capital markets. The fact that 90% of its employees are Singaporeans showed that the parent company has placed great trust in the Singapore subsidiary.
In addition, Orient Futures Singapore is strongly backed by its parent company, Shanghai Orient Futures, which is the largest futures broker in China, and its “Fanwei” investment research platform has its unique competitive edge in the industry.
Next Up: Carbon Derivatives
China’s Futures and Derivatives Law promulgated in August 2022 clarified the regulatory requirements for overseas futures brokers to provide services to clients within China, enhancing and enabling cross-border collaboration. “This is good for our business development.” He explained.
Besides overseas expansion, Marcus sees carbon emissions as a very important derivative product and believes that carbon derivatives products have great potential. He commented, “In order for us to serve our clients in this area, we have to first understand carbon emissions and the related products ourselves.” Hence, the next step is to encourage employees to receive training in this area and improve themselves to better serve clients.
Marcus believes that Singapore has an advantage over Hong Kong in the field of derivatives. Over the years, other than Orient Futures Singapore, many Chinese-backed futures brokers have also come to Singapore to start operations. “I believe this trend is conducive to promoting greater development in Singapore’s securities and futures market and could create countless valuable opportunities for the market.” He elaborated.
Source: https://www.zaobao.com.sg/finance/singapore/story20221025-1326160
