Maybank Kim Eng lauds BNM's initiatives on market

KUALALUMPUR:BankNegara Malaysia's (BNM) initiatives to enhance market liquidity and accessibility announced yesterday, has been lauded by Maybank Kim Eng as a step in the right direction.

“BNM announced several initiatives to improve onshore foreign exchange (FX) and bond market liquidity. We view the recent development positively and think it is a reinforcement of efforts to deepen and broaden the onshore market.

“Importantly, accessibility to onshore dynamic hedging is widened by including trust banks and global custodians,” said the research firm in a note yesterday.

BNM said it was taking several development initiatives to improve domestic FX and bond market liquidity, likely in response to FTSE Russell's action last month and also in line with the regulator's intention to continuously broaden and deepen the onshore financial markets.

Maybank Kim Eng said the timing of the announcement was within the research firm's expectation, such that it gave ample time to assess the impact on market liquidity from the new measures.

“BNM is not li ing the ban on offshore ringgit nondeliverable forward trading as widely expected, as the effort is focused on developing the onshore market,” it added.

Of the initiatives announced, Maybank Kim Eng has broadly classified them into two categories, namely measures to enhance bond market liquidity, as well as those to enhance FX market accessibility and liquidity.

“We think this is a marketfriendly measure and a reinforcement of BNM's efforts at continuously deepening the onshore financial markets,” it said. — Bernama

BNM announced several initiatives to improve onshore foreign exchange (FX) and bond market liquidity. We view the recent development positively and think it is a reinforcement of efforts to deepen and broaden the onshore market. Maybank Kim Eng