UK Losing Foreign Exchange Market To Asia

Brexit has hit the pound hard. Financial Times reported that the U.K.’s share of the foreign exchange market has dropped, while the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) reported that Asia, particularly Hong Kong, Tokyo and Singapore, are picking up the pieces.

China’s presence in global trade — and that of the Asia region overall — is palpable, and the use of China’s renminbi as a recognized international currency is growing. The BIS survey shows that the renminbi has doubled its take of the global FX market. China has also recently encouraged cross-border payments to strengthen the yuan by launching the Cross-Border Inter-Bank Payments System. While the value of the U.K. pound has been hit by the Brexit vote, Singapore has become the world’s third-largest FX market, surpassing even China, data from the Triennial Central Bank Survey found.

Here are the numbers:

$2.4 trillion | The amount of FX and over-the-counter derivatives handled by the U.K. in April

$517 billion | The amount of FX and over-the-counter derivatives that Singapore handled in April — an increase of 35 percent since 2013

37.1%| The U.K.’s share of the global currencies trading market, according to FT — down from 41 percent in 2013

21% | The percentage of the global FX market held by Hong Kong, Singapore and Tokyo — up from 15 percent in 2013

19% | The percentage drop in the volumes of global spot currency trades in the last three years, according to BIS