Reuters launches foreign exchange forwards in India

Reuters launched a forwards foreign exchange broking service in India last week.

The move was partly prompted by growing liberalisation of India's forex regulations - currency options were legitimised only in July. "For options, you need a spot and forwards price, so obviously that's helped," said Mark Kiley, global head of Reuters treasury broking services, based in London.

Reuters has customised the broking service for the Indian market, because there, dealers use different settlement dates for forwards than the international standard.

In India, forwards trades are settled on the last working day of the month - known as end-end - while elsewhere settlement is on a rolling forward basis, dating from the transaction.

To avoid the problem of mis-matched value dates, Reuters has established end-end settlement on the broking service - although it operates alongside rolling forwards, because it is expected that India will eventually conform to the international standard.

Kiley said the company's focus on India is part of a wider bid for dominance in emerging markets, which are seeing greater volumes as banks seek out margin in the post-euro world.