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Sika Financial Group Advances Regulatory Engagement Across Emerging Market Jurisdictions
Sika Financial Group, operator of a central counterparty and multilateral FX netting platform for emerging market currencies, today announced progress in its regulatory engagement programme across multiple emerging market jurisdictions.
The company is actively engaged with capital markets authorities, monetary authorities, and central banks across Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Latin America, with the objective of establishing Sika's infrastructure as a designated financial market utility in key markets.
Sika's engagement model involves working simultaneously with the capital markets regulator, the central bank, and primary banking sector participants in each market — designing infrastructure that meets local regulatory requirements while connecting to the global settlement network.
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The $2.2 Trillion Blind Spot in Global FX Settlement Infrastructure
When Herstatt Bank failed in 1974 — unable to complete its end-of-day DM/USD payments after its German banking licence was revoked — it triggered a crisis that reshaped global thinking about FX settlement risk. The response, decades later, was CLS Group: a payment-versus-payment settlement utility that eliminated Herstatt risk for the world's major currency pairs.
But CLS Group serves 18 currencies. There are over 180 traded currency pairs in the global FX market. The gap between those two numbers is where the next systemic crisis is most likely to originate — and it is a gap that the global financial community has largely chosen not to look at.
Sika was founded to close that gap. Not as a fintech product. As infrastructure. Built to the same standard — the CPMI-IOSCO Principles for Financial Market Infrastructures — and deployed in the markets where the need is most acute.
Sika Launches API Integration Programme for Institutional Participants
Sika Financial Group has launched its formal API integration programme, enabling institutional participants — including commercial banks, custodians, and trading platforms — to connect to Sika's settlement network via direct API integration.
The API supports ISO 20022 messaging standards and includes a full sandbox environment for testing and certification prior to live connectivity. Typical integration timelines are 6 to 10 weeks from onboarding initiation.
For institutions preferring a lower-friction connectivity option, Sika's Web Platform offers the same settlement functionality through a secure browser-based portal, with onboarding achievable in 2 to 4 weeks.