USD and other foreign currency denominated securities

The Luxembourg Stock Exchange is a major international listing center for international bonds, equities and investment funds that allows for the listing and trading of international bonds in their issuing currencies. As of yearend 2004, bonds accounted for 73.6% of total securities listed on the Exchange, while Euro and USD issues accounted for 51.3% and 31.8%, respectively, by issuing currency. Membership and trading on the Exchange are limited to credit institutions or investment firms that comply with the rules and regulations of the Luxembourg Stock Exchange.

Some information vendors such as Bloomberg and Reuters, and Internet portals such as Bondweb, offer bond trading platforms specializing in physical issues. These cater to all classes of USD securities and can include Asian sovereign and corporate issues. Over-the-counter trades also occur primarily for transactions involving retail investors.

For USD interest rate futures and options markets, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) and the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) are the leading exchanges. CME's Globex and CBOT's e-cbot are the exchanges' electronic trading platforms.

The Singapore Exchange (SGX) is an affiliate of CME with fungible interest rate contracts. The SGX is the principal USD futures trading center in the Asia-Pacific region.

Local currency securities

Currently, no comprehensive regional trading system exists for trading physical issues. Local currency bonds are traded in the exchanges of PRC, Indonesia, Japan, Republic of Korea and Thailand. Information on market specific trading systems can be found at market home pages.

There are local currency futures markets in Malaysia, Singapore and the Republic of Korea. There are also plans to launch a bond futures contract in Thailand. Market specific rules and regulations, including contract specifications, can be found on applicable home pages.