BOX 9
PARTICIPATION IN BIS TRIENNIAL SURVEY AND FINANCIAL STABILITY

MAS participated in the Bank for International Settlements’ (BIS) Triennial Central Bank Survey of Foreign Exchange and Derivatives Activity 2004. 53 central banks and monetary authorities were involved in this globally coordinated foreign exchange survey.

Singapore maintained its ranking as the fourth largest forex centre in the world. The survey results in Singapore showed that domestic average daily foreign exchange turnover, based on a new survey methodology of using data from sales desks, was US$125 billion for April 2004. Based on trading desk reporting, MAS estimates that the average daily forex turnover in Singapore reached US$153 billion in April 2004, a 51% increase over 2001.

The higher turnover activity is a result of more global players centering their Asian time zone business in Singapore in recent years. The larger flows are also due to non-financial customers. In line with global trends, there was strong growth in the volume of USD and Euro contracts. Inter-bank players also benefited from increased activity with non-financial customers.

Daily average turnover for over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives in April 2004 rose almost three-fold to US$17 billion in April 2004 from US$6 billion in April 2001.

MAS also increased our participation in financial stability initiatives coordinated by multilateral organisations. They included:

• International Monetary Fund's (IMF) technical assistance missions, which contribute to the development of the productive resources of IMF member countries by enhancing the effectiveness of economic policy and financial policy.
• IMF's compilation exercise of Financial Soundness Indicators, which are a set of key statistics that the IMF recommends for financial system surveillance.
• BIS-Committee on the Global Financial System's survey on stress testing, which is another key tool in financial surveillance work.

Throughout 2004, MAS further contributed to global financial stability by sharing our macro-surveillance framework with other central banks, particularly those from Asia.