European derivatives exchange Eurex sees increasing demand for its products in Asian markets such as Taiwan, with trades on leading German automaker shares and index futures popular, a top executive said.
Roland Schwinn, head of sales for Asia and the Middle East, told Reuters in an interview during a visit to Taipei this week that local Asian investors are a fast-developing second wave of clients for the exchange in the region after big global firms.
"There is increasing demand," he said, noting a Chinese investor scheme that allows some investment in European securities as well as a time zone advantage that allows clients in Asia to hedge open exposures with the Eurostoxx 50 contract on Eurex during Asian market hours.
He said that products most popular for Asian investors are index futures, especially Eurostoxx and Dax futures.
New Korean KOPSI index futures and Bombay stock exchange Sensex futures were developed for Asian clients. Eurex, controlled by Deutsche Boerse, is also about to launch an agreement with the Singapore exchange, which will list Eurex's Eurostoxx 50 futures in US dollars with Eurex helping the marketing.
"We prefer to go into co-operation with other partner exchanges," Schwinn said.
"We have to bear in mind that Asian markets are pretty much covered already. Local exchanges already serve their home markets, so we cannot just come to a particular market and reinvent the market and create products that were not there before."
He sees China and India as future markets with great potential, but they will need time to develop and Eurex is watching developments in the markets and regulations.
"China is a long-term project," he said. "Next year we will start offering training courses in mainland China and we plan co-operation with mainland universities to educate the markets on how to use futures and options."
Eurex and its rival Liffe, part of transatlantic exchange NYSE Euronext, have long dominated exchange traded derivatives in Europe.