Traders want Asia, but not Hong Kong or Singapore
Asia might be the most in-demand market for an expanding trader’s footprint, but it’s not the traditional cities or countries in the region.
Rather, a report from market intelligence firm Acuiti has found that Taiwan is the most popular new jurisdiction for traders.
Hong Kong was the strongest performing “traditional” new opportunity, coming third, whilst Singapore came fifth. Acuiti noted that whilst China was a “sold investment story”, it was still difficult for foreign firms to navigate, and issues about moving money out of the country persisted. A new law coming to force later this year is promising to change that, however – but the Chinese onshore market came second to last.
The only region that the Chinese onshore market beat was the Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT City), an Indian government project. The Indian onshore markets, however, were highly rated by the traders in Acuiti’s survey.
Some 75% of traders were planning to get involved in Asian markets, the highest in the world. The Americas, primarily Brazil and Mexico, were the next most desirable markets, whilst the Middle East was the least popular, with only around 15% of traders having a plan for the region.
Expanding geographically has become harder for traders in recent years. “Both time to entry and cost of new connectivity is increasing for most firms,” the report said, and traders were placing increased focus on latency in choosing a new strategy, even when latency wasn’t part of their strategies.
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