Live Interbank FX Trading launched for the first time in Ghana

Under the supervision of the Bank of Ghana, financial data company, Refinitiv Matching, has launched a live interbank Foreign Exchange (FX) trading for the first time in Ghana.

This market-leading Central Limit Order Book offers a new level of operation for FX traders with a minimum quoting of US$250,000. This is to help make the black market, which mostly dominants quoting prices, ineffective and unattractive.

Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr Ernest Addison expressed the importance of this key milestone to the Ghanaian financial market and the broader West African community.

“Ensuring that we have systems that promote transparency and standardization of our onshore trading ties in quite well with our Sustainability Banking Principles launched last year”, Dr. Ernest Addison said at the launch ceremony in Accra, last week.

“As the Bank of Ghana, we are deepening the foreign exchange market through the introduction of new solutions to improve liquidity and unlock the financial sector’s capacity. This is key for the stability of our market,” he noted.

Nadim Najjar, Managing Director for the Middle East and Africa at Refinitiv said, “We are excited to be launching Refinitiv Matching one of the leading anonymous electronic matching services available in the global FX marketplace, in West Africa. This collaboration between Refinitiv and the Bank of Ghana and local banks marks a key milestone in automating and digitizing FX trading workflows.

“Our customers in Ghana will now have access to real-time executable prices for over 60 currency pairs and 30 FX Swap currency pairs through Refinitiv’s FXT platform. They will now benefit from an end-to-end automated workflow, such as accurate price discovery, the certainty of execution and automated reporting.”

“We have worked really hard to get the Ghanaian Cedi (GHS) added to Matching,” said Nuno Neto, Performance Director for Trading from Refinitiv at the launch held in Accra. “We couldn’t have reached this key milestone without support from the market.”

“The trust and active collaboration of the Bank of Ghana and the banking community in Ghana have enabled the standardization of the onshore trading in Ghana while providing cost-effective and transparent interbank execution leading to a more innovative way of trading,” he added.

Refinitiv Matching is a leading industry solution that offers real-time credit screening, easy price discovery concentrated liquidity and efficient execution for FX traders.

It is one of the world’s largest providers of financial markets data and infrastructure, serving over 40,000 institutions in over 190 countries.

It provides leading data and insights, trading platforms, and open data and technology platforms that connect a thriving global financial markets community – driving performance in trading, investment, wealth management, regulatory compliance, market data management, enterprise risk and fighting financial crime.

Source: Adnan Adams Mohammed