Marcus Goi, CEO of Orient Futures International (Singapore) Pte. Ltd. ("Orient Futures Singapore” or the “Company”), joined Orient Futures Singapore in September 2018, and he is responsible for spearheading the internationalisation of Shanghai Orient Futures. Orient Futures Singapore’s services leverage financial technology, where it achieves financial innovation through advanced technologies, eliminating cumbersome processes faced by traditional economies, leading to an improvement in efficiency while providing customisable financial services to clients.
Marcus Goi, CEO of Orient Futures Singapore
With more than 20 years of experience, Marcus is a veteran in the financial services and capital market industry. He is passionate about promoting brokerage services, daring to accept challenges, advocating financial innovation and transformation, and providing clients with the best service and experience. He has deep expertise in business development for Exchange Traded Derivatives, OTC Derivatives and Leverage Foreign Exchange Trading. In this article, Marcus will share some of the company’s future development directions and strategies with us.
Moving Forward Despite the Odds
Q: Please share with us the business growth of Orient Futures Singapore for these recent years and the challenges you faced during this period. What are the main services offered and is there any growth data that you can share with us?
A: Founded in September 2018, Orient Futures Singapore is a Chinese-backed overseas futures broker and holds memberships with major derivatives exchanges in Singapore. It became a Trading and Clearing member of the Asia Pacific Exchange (APEX) on 15 October 2019, a direct Derivatives Trading and Clearing member of the Singapore Exchange (SGX) on 2 January 2020, and a Trading and Clearing member of the Intercontinental Exchange Singapore (ICE SG) on 17 May 2022. It is expected that the company will connect to more derivatives exchanges next year and expand the company's business scope and services.
The company continues to achieve positive business growth since its inception. The pandemic, economic depression, the issue of manpower shortage and other external factors seen in recent years have indeed brought many challenges to business operations. But through the joint efforts of employees and effective coordination between various departments, the company continues to perform well, and we can observe this from the improvement in sales performance. According to the company's financial report for the second quarter of 2022, business revenue increased significantly in the first half of 2022.
Over the past three 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.
Q: How do you build your Singapore team?
A: The company has just started when the global pandemic first began to spread, so we encountered many difficulties and challenges in the past three years. Through continuous exploration, the company found its unique business model and market positioning.
On one hand, the company puts technological innovation as its primary focus and business strategies as its secondary focus. On the other hand, the capital market will develop under a more stringent legal and regulatory framework, so technological capabilities will allow the company to occupy a leading position in the capital markets.
On top of that, the company is committed to using a market-oriented salary system and incentive mechanisms to hire talented and capable professionals to enhance sales efforts and expand the team. At the same time, the company also put a huge emphasis on assessment and promotion mechanisms. We hope that the use of market-oriented mechanisms can help the company to attract, train and retain talents. Besides 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.
Orient Futures Singapore team posed for a group photo at The Asia Capital Markets Awards 2022 for “Emerging Market Futures Commission Merchant (FCM) of the Year”
Connecting the Chinese and international markets
Q: What advantages do you have as compared to other futures providers?
A: Firstly, compared to other local futures brokers, we are an overseas subsidiary of Shanghai Orient Futures, so we can represent international clients to participate in China's futures trading more conveniently, safely, and efficiently. At the same time, we can help clients to connect to China's futures market and capital markets where they will gain access to more trading opportunities. Furthermore, the company utilises products and resources from overseas to introduce overseas futures products to Chinese clients. These plus points make us the preferred futures and foreign exchange broker for clients.
Secondly, compared to those established overseas futures brokers where they have extensive client resources and strong brand influence, the company has formulated detailed strategic plans based on peer data analysis. In addition, Orient Futures Singapore is client-centric, and it leverages fintech to build its core competitiveness. Importantly, it combines cutting-edge technologies such as big data, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, in areas ranging from digitalised account opening process to multi-channel communication, from low-latency trading systems to sophisticated risk monitoring systems, to improve overall business efficiency and provide clients with high-quality services. In addition, growing as a whole Orient Group is also our strategic direction. The company leverages the established branding and market position of our parent company and uses an efficient and synergised mechanism to connect China’s futures markets and international futures markets to serve clients globally.
Q: What kind of support does the Shanghai parent company have for the Singapore subsidiary?
A: The parent company of Shanghai Orient Futures is our strong backing and has given us great support in all aspects.
To start with, there is client resource support. The parent company has a customer base that includes all types of Chinese and foreign clients. We could leverage these resources to expand our business and connect to the capital markets. In particular, corporate clients have brought positive results to the company's revenue.
Next, there is investment research and technical support. The "Fanwei" intelligent investment research platform independently developed by the investment research and technical team of the parent company consists of two major functions, mainly data integration and quantitative analysis, combining analysis methods and models compiled based on numerous years of experience. As such, this platform has its unique competitive edge in the industry. Moreover, the parent company has also established Orient Securities Innovation Technology Research Institute and Orient Securities Quantitative Finance Innovation Laboratory. The former is dedicated to improving the company's investment and research capabilities, while the latter focuses on improving the company's technical abilities and standards. These research and analysis resources are also attractive to clients.
The various divisions of the Singapore subsidiary also work closely with the relevant departments of the parent company to jointly seek the best interests of our clients.
Seizing breakthrough opportunities
Q: Under the current business environment, we can see that the Chinese market is gradually opening up. What opportunities do you see for Orient Futures in the future?
A: With the implementation of China's Futures and Derivatives Law (FDL), China's financial market continues to expand, and more and more international clients have participated in China's futures trading market. As an overseas subsidiary, we are aware that there is great potential in China's futures and derivatives markets. The further opening up of the market is the key to achieving business growth and revenue. At present, we utilise the brand influence and research ability of the parent company and make use of the Research Institute's and the Group's resources to collaborate effectively. This will improve the company's research and technology capabilities. With these positive factors, it lays down a strong foundation for the company to make breakthroughs in areas such as company revenue, Exchanged Traded Derivatives and OTC trading volume.
It is worth mentioning that China's Futures and Derivatives Law promulgated in August 2022 stipulates that domestic and foreign regulators can establish a cross-border regulatory collaboration mechanism, clarifying the regulatory requirements for overseas futures brokers to provide services to clients within China, thus enhancing and enabling cross-border collaboration. This is good for our business development.
Q: What are your plans for the next few years? Which areas to focus on?
A: The company's goals for the next three years are:
One, connect to more exchanges and obtain more trading and clearing memberships of derivatives exchanges. There is huge potential for exchange-traded derivatives markets in the Asia Pacific and North America, among which emerging derivatives markets such as China, India, Brazil, and South Korea are developing rapidly. Moreover, financial derivatives occupy a high proportion of the market share, and the market development space is large. The company hopes to obtain memberships in the top 20 derivatives exchanges in the world as soon as possible.
Two, constantly leverage the latest technology. In the next 10 years of capital market transformation, the company will maintain its technological leadership, deploy new systems in the core infrastructure, use financial technology to improve client service level, leverage digitalisation to solve growing client needs and provide financial services such as mobile finance and internet APP trading platform.
Last but not least, restructure the company at an appropriate time. We will apply for Singapore’s capital market securities license and asset management license to increase the product offerings by the company.
In general, Orient Futures Singapore is responsible for the internationalisation of Shanghai Orient Futures. With the rapid development of the global capital markets in the past few years, Orient Futures Singapore has the confidence and ability to shine and stand out in the international market. It can provide individual and corporate investors with comprehensive capital market services such as futures, forex, securities, and asset management.
Q: How do you see the gradual opening up of China's capital market and the opportunities it brings to Singapore?
As a Chinese-backed financial institution, the high potential of China's capital markets is a valuable resource for the company. By leveraging the strong resources of our parent company, Shanghai Orient Futures, the company can open up global trading channels and service links for local and foreign clients. At the same time, the continuous acceleration of the internationalisation of China's derivatives market and the gradual relaxation of the QFII system (allowing international clients to trade Chinese commodity futures) have brought endless business opportunities to the company and its parent company.
Q: What is your view on the entry of Chinese companies into Singapore's securities and futures markets?
A: As an important economic and trade centre in the Asia-Pacific region, Singapore has always attracted many investors to invest and participate in capital market transactions. 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. At the same time, this also constantly spurs the company to maintain its core competitiveness, establish brand influence in this competitive market, and strive to provide clients with the best service and improve client loyalty.
About Orient Futures Singapore
Orient Futures Singapore is a direct wholly-owned subsidiary of Shanghai Orient Futures Co. Ltd. and an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of Orient Securities Co. Ltd. Our company offers a suite of services in capital market products such as Exchange Traded Derivatives, OTC Derivatives and Leverage Foreign Exchange Trading. We hold exchange memberships of the Singapore Exchange (SGX), Asia Pacific Exchange (APEX) and Intercontinental Exchange Singapore (ICE SG), and are an overseas intermediary of overseas Intermediary of Shanghai International Energy Exchange (INE), Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE), and Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange (ZCE). Contact us here.
