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Key Takeaways
- Electronic access is expanding, though liquidity and trading rules still vary by market
- Gerard Melia explains why liquidity costs persist despite easier market access
- Many clients seek a rate they can rely on over their planning horizon
In a September 2026 e-Forex article, Gerard Melia, global head of FX sales at StoneX, discusses how wider electronic access is changing institutional trading in emerging markets. Technology has brought more currencies into familiar trading workflows. Yet access does not guarantee execution. Liquidity can be thin, and local market practices still shape which trades can be completed.
FX Access Improves, but Liquidity Remains Uneven
Institutional interest has grown in emerging markets where electronic access and hedging activity have developed. The e-Forex article points to stronger flows in more liquid Asian currencies and growing use of non-deliverable forwards. Those developments do not erase local market differences. A price on screen may be less useful once credit, settlement and market access requirements are considered.
That variation matters as institutions seek more efficient execution. Better connectivity can bring together prices from multiple sources, but it cannot make every market equally deep or easy to trade.
What Sits Behind the FX Liquidity Premium
Melia says higher yields are only one reason institutions have returned to emerging markets. Changing trade corridors and supply chains generate underlying currency flows, while commodity cycles affect interest in many emerging-market currencies.
He also challenges the idea that the liquidity premium in these markets is simply a markup for difficulty. Providing liquidity uses credit and balance sheet capacity. A provider may also need to hold a position it cannot readily offset and maintain local settlement arrangements. Producing a usable price from fragmented sources takes work. Those costs help explain why improved access does not always translate into G10-style pricing.
Institutions Seek Certainty Over a Defined Horizon
As participation grows, clients are bringing more defined hedging needs to providers. Melia says many institutional and corporate clients begin with the outcome they need, particularly “the protection of a budget or planning rate.”
That objective changes how an execution decision is judged. For a client with emerging-market currency exposure, protecting a planning rate over time may matter more than getting the best available level on one trade.
Technology Changes the Workflow
Electronic connectivity now allows many emerging-market currencies to sit alongside other currencies in an institution’s trading process. According to Melia, that can remove a separate manual step and make programmatic execution more practical. Automated pricing has also reached pairs once handled mainly through requests for quotes.
The shift has limits. Melia notes that longer-dated or more structured transactions still call for a conversation. Across the article, contributors also emphasize the role of data and analytics in assessing liquidity and execution quality, especially where trading conditions can change quickly.
Choosing an FX Partner
The article concludes by highlighting the need to assess what a provider can deliver in practice. Technology may broaden access. Institutions still need a provider that can extend credit, price consistently and complete trades reliably.
For Melia, the distinction is clear: “clients are buying access to judgement, not just access to infrastructure.” A connected workflow is only as useful as the execution and settlement behind it.
Read the full article in e-Forex: https://e-forex.net/from-opportunity-to-execution-how-technology-is-reshaping-institutional-fx-trading-across-emerging-markets/
StoneX FX delivers comprehensive FX trading and hedging solutions for institutions and corporates globally. Drawing on our FX market-making capabilities, we provide efficient, secure liquidity access through simplified turnkey solutions. Backed by StoneX Group Inc. (SNEX), a fully regulated and Moody's/S&P-rated Fortune 50 company, StoneX FX maintains rigorous compliance and governance standards.
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