Dark pool trading in Asia increases – as does regulatory interest

The dark pool sector in Singapore was killed off by onerous regulations. As the SFC later looks to step up its oversight of the activity, the question is whether the Asian market will match its European and North American peers in terms of penetration and trading volume

Financial market regulators worldwide are increasingly focusing on dark pools with concerns the relative opacity of these platforms can hamper price discovery if too much volume is taken away from the lit market.

In Asia-Pacific, dark pools – essentially platforms that do not publicly quote prices – are located in Australia, Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore. However, the proportion of trades executed in dark markets compared with lit venues is still relatively small when compared with Europe or