Saxo Bank Adds Russian Ruble Pairs To OTC FX Options Offering

Saxo Bank has today announced the addition of two new crosses to its OTC FX options offering, centered on the Russian ruble.

The pairs which have been released today are USDRUB and EURRUB, allowing Saxo Bank clients to combine both spot and options in the Russian Ruble, all from the same account, with a minimum trade size of 10,000 units of the base currency.

Russia Going Global

Russia’s financial markets structure has made significant progress over recent months, the first milestone having been steps taken to form the structure of a viable FX market in Russia, along with initial steps made toward regulatory oversight last year.

Subsequently, the region has generated a degree of interest, with Integral Development Corporation having facilitated the availability of FX Liquidity last June via FX Grid, and more recently global connectivity firms concentrating on providing high speed, low latency point-to-point connections as exemplified by TMX Atrium’s Managing Director Emmanuel Carjat having explained to Forex Magnates earlier this year that his company is noticing an increase in demand between London and Moscow.

Saxo Bank considers itself a major OTC option interbank market player with access to deep pools of liquidity, and according to the company, a business requirement for the two new crosses had emerged in order to complement Saxo Bank's holistic offering to support clients' trading strategies and to enable them to manage complex portfolios.

Didier Abbato, Vice President, Product Management at Saxo Bank, today made a corporate statement on the launch of the new pairs as follows: "The Russian Ruble is attractive to many investors, and we have now made options trading possible for our clients.”

“Saxo Bank offers FX options on 43 currency pairs as well as a full suite of tools and services that had hitherto only been available to professional FX options traders. The newest addition of the two crosses is testament to our ambition to offer a product that is unmatched in the online trading world" stated Mr. Abbato.

With the incremental interest in trading in Russia’s financial markets within the institutional sector, the ruble has become an equal matter of interest as well as the connectivity of firms to Russia’s markets via technological upgrades. Last December, the Moscow Exchange increased the tick value of the USDRUB and EURRUB pairs from 0.0001 to 0.0005 as a response to demand from market participants.

Whether the Moscow Exchange intended to mitigate certain effects on the market which could emerge from high speed algorithmic trading by making such a move is open to question, as is the potential popularity of ruble-based OTC derivatives outside of the domestic market, however it certainly appears to be gaining more traction.

For a detailed synopsis on the Russian FX market, a full report compiled by Forex Magnates can be purchased here.