Asian Exchanges: Laggards No More

Celent has released a new report titled Asian Exchanges: Laggards No More. The report was written by Anshuman Jaswal, senior analyst in Celent’s Securities & Investments group.

The exchange landscape in Asia-Pacific has undergone significant changes in the last decade. In the past, Asian exchanges had been playing catch-up with the leading exchanges in the US and Europe. They lagged in terms of both technology and breadth of product portfolios. While it might not possible for most of the exchanges in Asia-Pacific to compete globally with their much larger and more sophisticated international counterparts, they have nevertheless taken giant strides in ensuring that their technological platforms are upgraded on a regular basis. There has also been continuous effort to improve the breadth of the product portfolios by adding new products suited to the requirements of domestic investors (and, increasingly, foreign investors) in their respective markets.

There have been important differences in strategy. Some have gone in for large-scale changes and overhaul of their capabilities, while others have preferred to take a more measured, incremental approach.

Another way in which exchanges have adopted different approaches is to choose between working internally and working with third party vendors. Some have successfully developed their own matching engines and post-trade infrastructure. Other exchanges such have chosen a mixed approach and developed some components internally while buying others from third party vendors. Within this category, some exchanges choose to work with a single technology vendor, while others prefer working with various vendors for different requirements.

“The leading Asian exchanges have adopted different IT sourcing strategies, choosing between internal capabilities and reliance on one or more third party vendors,” commented Anshuman Jaswal, senior analyst in Celent’s Securities & Investments group and author of the report. “One thing to keep in mind is that using a hybrid or multivendor approach allows access to the latest technology, but also makes it difficult for firms to integrate their different systems, which often are of differing vintages.”