Clients now include ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, IDBI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Yes Bank, ING Vysya Bank, DBS India, Reliance Industries, Tata Steel, Adani Export, Forexserve and Greenback Forex.
“Much has been made about the development of India as a leading economy and market place. The demand we are seeing from clients for all our products in India from across the whole spectrum fully supports that view,” says Omer Hevlin, Senior Sales Manager at SuperDerivatives.
“Indian derivative users are extremely sophisticated and they want to have the best products available to manage their financial risks. The Indian derivatives markets are growing at an incredibly fast rate and there is a real need for products which can both price and then manage risk accurately, but which are also easily accessible. Our pricing and revaluation products fully meet all of those requirements,” he adds.
Sudhir Joshi, Treasurer at HDFC Bank, says SD-FX™, the foreign exchange (FX) option pricing system from SuperDerivatives, has been invaluable in helping his bank devise bespoke option strategies for its clients. “We find SD-FX easy to use, and its pricing is a fair indication of the market. SuperDerivatives has constantly been widening the range of products SD-FX covers and it can price most kinds of exotics. As it is web-based, it facilitates easy access. It has a good online support system for any query. Using SuperDerivatives has helped us customize risk management strategies to match the requirements of our clients,” he says.
Manish Tawde, VP Structured Products, Kotak Mahindra Bank is also an active user of the SD-FX platform. “SD-FX is very user-friendly and it’s good for both vanilla and exotic products. Because it’s internet-based, it’s easy to access. The number of options it prices seems to increase continuously. SuperDerivatives always incorporates new strategies and option classes very quickly,” he says.
Tawde believes that the FX options market in India has grown by a staggering 300% in the last 2-years and that SuperDerivatives has played an important role in this expansion. “The growth is not all because of SuperDerivatives, but the injection of transparency it has brought about has definitely helped. If you can price even complex structures accurately before you start negotiating with counterparties, it helps get better and fairer pricing. SuperDerivatives helps us do this,” he says.
Raghav Sud, Manager Treasury at Tata Steel agrees with these sentiments. “SD-FX is very user-friendly and it’s given us real transparency. The prices it generates are accurate and it gives us an excellent indication of where the market is trading. This saves us a lot of time, as we know where prices are before we go to our banks for quotes.”
Satyajit Kanjial, the chief executive of consultancy firm Forexserve, says that there is a growing appetite among Indian corporations to manage their exposures in the most efficient manner possible. “We’re a consultancy firm advising large Indian corporations on their hedging strategies. SD-FX has helped us a lot. One of the things corporations are looking for is help on what sort of strategies they should implement. It helps us put in place for them more complex structures than was possible 3- or 4-years ago. SD-FX also allows them to manage their risk,” he says.
Kanjial continues: “The Indian market is becoming much more sophisticated. There are two main aspects to this. There has been a real demystification of the market. Banks used to be able to quote what they wanted. SuperDerivatives provides benchmark prices. We’re not trying to find faults with the banks’ pricing, but corporations do need to know where the real levels are. SuperDerivatives stands a long way out in helping them do this.”
He points out another feature about SuperDerivatives’ pricing and revaluation systems. “Because SuperDerivatives’ products are web-based, their market penetration is very good. We can e-mail our clients structures out of SuperDerivatives. Their products complement what we are doing. We are not selling pricing. Ours is a conceptualization business. We offer strategies and ideas and accurate pricing is an important tool in that. The options market has become more transparent in India and SuperDerivatives has played a major role in that.”
Hevlin concludes: “We have found a willingness in India to adopt the best option pricing systems that are available. Users realize that access to benchmark pricing in FX, interest rates, equity and commodities really helps save them money in their transaction costs and allows them to price and monitor their risk accurately. The Indian market is phenomenal and it is certainly going to continue expanding.”
