By Alice Atkins | Updated on Oct 12, 2026 at 08:54 AM
Singapore Exchange Ltd. is aiming to make it easier for European investors to trade Asian bonds during their own working day.
For money managers in Europe, getting the best prices usually means trading in the early hours of the morning or having staff on the ground in Asia. Starting Tuesday, they will be able to use the Singapore Exchange’s new one-hour “liquidity window” that aims to boost activity from market makers and asset managers later in the Asian trading day.
The window will open at 10 a.m. London time — 5 p.m. in Singapore — as part of SGX’s push to build volumes in its bond futures.
The exchange has struggled to broaden its rates franchise beyond its fast-growing Japanese government bond futures. Trading volumes across all of its new Asia-Pacific contracts, bar India, were at zero through August, underscoring the challenge of building offshore liquidity in Asian bonds.
“There is a massive appetite in Europe to trade these markets,” William Chin, head of rates and derivatives at SGX, said in an interview. “They don’t want to be working crazy hours or have to relocate teams to Asia permanently.”
SGX launched government bond futures for India, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines earlier this year, alongside 20-year Japanese futures. The expansion came amid increased investor interest in the region, following Japan’s interest-rate hikes and an uptick in volatility across Asian markets.
In addition to the European initiative, the exchange will also open a liquidity window for Indian investors from Tuesday, running between 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Singapore time, Chin said.
The initiatives aim to tackle a long-standing problem where asset managers don’t trade without visible pricing, while market makers hesitate to commit capital without enough demand. By “concentrating eyeballs” into set trading periods rather than requiring round-the-clock attention, Chin said SGX hopes to “break that chicken-and-egg cycle.”