Foreign exchange futures, the world's first financial futures product, have been an indispensable financial derivative tool in managing exchange rate risk in the international financial market for nearly half a century. Foreign exchange futures have b...
Foreign exchange futures, the world's first financial futures product, have been an indispensable financial derivative tool in managing exchange rate risk in the international financial market for nearly half a century. Foreign exchange futures have become increasingly important in promoting foreign trade, facilitating foreign investment, and contributing to the real economy as economic globalization and the expansion of the floating exchange rate system. Currently, the international financial crisis occurs frequently, trading volume and liquidity indicators in the on-site derivatives market have increased significantly, and foreign exchange futures have secured their status as the most important trading item for foreign exchange derivatives, which is becoming an issue and a new direction for major economies and financial companies to hedge exchange rate risks.
Foreign exchange futures are a tool to manage exchange rate risk. Discovering exchange rate prices has become a criterion for evaluating the marketization of exchange rates and the level of development of financial markets. As China's exchange rate formation mechanism intensifies marketization, the trend and amplitude of bidirectional fluctuations in exchange rates will become more pronounced. Chinese companies will face greater exchange rate risks. To avoid these risks, diversity and innovation in exchange rate derivatives must be pursued. Adequate risk management tools for hedge trading are needed to cope with complex market risks arising from uncertainty.
Currently, the futures market in China mainly consists of RMB foreign exchange futures released by the Shanghai International Energy Exchange (INE) and the China Financial Futures Exchange (CFFEX). The China Financial Futures Exchange mainly offers U.S. dollar/CNH futures, euro/CNH futures, Japanese yen/CNH (JPY/CNH), and Australian dollar/CNH futures. All of the futures businesses listed above are based on overseas RMB to meet the exchange rate risk management needs of companies with international trading businesses. Foreign exchange futures on the Shanghai International Energy Exchange are exchange rate hedging tools related to RMB crude oil futures. Although traded on the basis of crude oil futures, commodity futures denominated in RMB (such as crude oil futures) also indirectly involve exchange rate risk management. In addition to the futures contracts of the two futures exchanges, there are some over-the-counter derivatives in the interbank market in mainland China, such as foreign exchange futures and swaps, which are not strictly futures products.
Mainland China's renminbi foreign exchange futures market is mainly based on overseas renminbi (CNH) and supports companies and investors to hedge the risk of currency fluctuations. The RMB futures (CNY) trading market in the region is still empty. Compared to the mature international foreign exchange derivatives market, there is a wide gap in the types of transactions and the size of transactions. In the long run, to strengthen control over the price dominance of the RMB exchange rate in the future, the government should gradually establish the domestic RMB futures market, simultaneously improve the overseas RMB futures market to mutually develop the domestic and overseas RMB futures markets, strengthen the voice of the RMB exchange rate in the global market, deepen and enrich China's foreign exchange market system, and form a complete derivatives system including forex spot, forex futures, forex swaps, forex futures and forex options to lay a solid market foundation for internationalization of the renminbi.
This paper focuses on the development of renminbi futures from an international perspective. The entire research process of the renminbi futures market is examined through the past-present-future timeline. This study uses the economic function and foreign exchange theory of foreign exchange futures as a guide, and comprehensively analyzes the development of renminbi futures in overseas and domestic markets using the VECM model to conduct three studies on the possibility of further development of the renminbi futures market.
This paper studies the development of the Chinese RMB market and also refers to the experience of developing local currency futures in other countries. Based on the correlation of the development stage, the similarity of the situations faced, and the consistency of the results, India, Brazil, and Russia were selected to further investigate the development path of local currency futures in the three countries and their impact on RMB futures in the international foreign exchange market.
Since research on renminbi futures in China is currently insufficient, this paper discusses the future development direction of the renminbi futures market and the deepening reform of the exchange rate formation mechanism, and suggests the market direction for the development of the renminbi futures market. In other words, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange should fully serve as a bridgehead in the overseas renminbi futures market, improve the overseas renminbi futures market, rebuild the domestic renminbi futures market in the order of cross-exchange foreign exchange futures and the launch of renminbi foreign exchange futures, and establish a complete foreign exchange derivative system in Korea.