Singapore hit by currency fixing claims

Non-deliverable currency forwards, or NDFs, are not a tool that many individual investors may be familiar with.

But they have been getting a lot of attention recently, not least because they could be at the centre of the claims of a currency-rigging scandal in Singapore.

They let traders buy and sell emerging market currencies, such as the Indonesian rupiah, the Malaysian ringgit or the Vietnamese dong.

The NDFs are also used to limit or hedge risk in the currency markets.

So what exactly is the problem and how will it affect Singapore, which is the second-biggest foreign exchange market in Asia?

Sharanjit Leyl spoke to Jame DiBiasio, executive editor of FinanceAsia in Hong Kong.