ABN AMRO yesterday became one of the first international firms to enter China's interbank foreign exchange trading market by signing an agreement with the China Foreign Exchange Trade System (CFETS).

ABN AMRO can now provide competitive executable prices to clients on China's ground-breaking CFETS, a subsidiary of the People's Bank of China.

Other financial institutions able to contribute foreign exchange prices include Bank of China, CITIC Industrial Bank, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Bank of Montreal, Citibank, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, ING and the Royal Bank of Scotland.

CFETS member banks are able to benefit from a real-time, Internet-based foreign exchange multi-bank portal built using Reuters' technology.

They can leave orders, request a price or execute foreign exchange transactions with a single click for any of the non-renminbi currency pairs quoted on the portal.

"The launch of CFETS foreign exchange trading is conducive to the development of China's foreign exchange market as it provides broader access to global foreign exchange liquidity in China," said Steven Metzler, a senior manager from ABN AMRO.

"We are very proud of co-operating with CFETS in making Chinese financial history."

Local financial insiders said the move will bring in a wider range of currency pairs to be traded in the system and introduce a market making mechanism to China.

"It will also make a contribution to the liberalization of the currency regime in China," said Metzler.

Harry Tsai, ABN AMRO's Country Representative for China, said "This is a major milestone for ABN AMRO's business in China and will further enhance our strong presence and wide range of capabilities in the country."

ABN AMRO expects foreign exchange trading volumes at CFETS to increase significantly because of the expansion of onshore foreign exchange trading with very competitive transparent prices and liquidity.

Statistics from the head office of CFETS in Shanghai showed that trading on China's interbank foreign exchange market recorded robust month-on-month growth of nearly 40 per cent in average daily transaction volume, a sign of the tremendous growth potential in China's foreign exchange market.

Last month, turnover of the US dollar, the Japanese yen, the HK dollar and the euro amounted to US$28.22 billion, or an average of US$1.28 billion per day.

(China Daily May 19, 2005)