Questions and Answers

1. Does the Australian foreign exchange market have a code of conduct?

The Australian foreign exchange market follows the FX Global code, which is maintained by the Global Foreign Exchange Committee.

2. Who authorises dealers to participate in the Australian foreign exchange market?

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) licenses dealers.

3. What are the regulated trading hours for the Australian foreign exchange market?

There are no set daily trading hours for the foreign exchange market, which can operate 24 hours a day. Normal trading commences from 5.00 am (Sydney time) on Monday and closes at 5.00 pm (New York time) on Friday.

By convention, the settlement dates for a foreign exchange (FX) transaction which involves Australian Dollars (AUD) are those days which are:

(i) not a Saturday, Sunday or public holiday (including bank holiday) in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia; and

(ii) a good business day for the settlement of such an FX transaction in the principal financial centre(s) for the other currency(s) which are the subject of the FX transaction (e.g. New York in the case of FX transactions which involve United States Dollars (USD)).

4. Is there a daily exchange rate fix in the Australian market?

There is no fix similar to those in the Tokyo or London markets. The AFXC in conjunction with the Australian Financial Markets Association (AFMA) and ACI Australia announced on 30 June 2008 the introduction of new methodology and timing for calculation of an Australian dollar reference rate. Under this arrangement, WM/Reuters provides market access to its reference rate for the AUD/USD rate at 10.00 am and 4.00 pm Sydney time each day. From 1 July 2008, the WM/Reuters Australian Fix 10.00 am rate replaced the Hedge Settlement Rate which dated from when Australia had a non-deliverable market in the 1970s and was published at 9.45 am.

The 10.00 am and 4.00 pm rate is published on the electronic media and ACI Australia's website.