StoneXGroup has extended its partnership with currency technology firm Integral toset up a local connection at the Equinix SG1 data center in Singapore. The linklets the Nasdaq-listed broker reach FX and precious metals liquidity hosted inthe facility, the companies said.StoneX Extends IntegralPartnership to Singapore's SG1 Data CenterStoneX already runs on Integral's infrastructure atEquinix's New York and London sites. Adding Singapore gives it a regional pointof presence and, the firms said, strips out the delay that comes with routingAsian order flow through servers in other regions.GerardMelia, Global Head of FX Sales at StoneX, commented the firm is sharpening itsability to serve clients "in a region where speed and access to liquidityare critical."Integralsaid the local deployment would improve access to liquidity in foreign exchangeand precious metals while cutting latency and lifting trading efficiency forclients across Asia. Neithercompany put numbers to those claims, and StoneX did not say how much latency itexpects to save or how much volume it plans to move through Singapore.Integral Builds OutSingapore as Asian Demand ClimbsThe deallands on top of Integral's own buildout in the city. In January, the firm tripled the size of its presence atEquinix SG1 aftertransaction volumes climbed, and it now says it processes more than one milliontickets a day at the site.Singaporeranks among the largest FX trading centers in the world, behind only London andNew York. That statushas pulled banks, brokers and technology vendors into a race to place serversclose to where regional prices are formed, shaving milliseconds off executionand keeping firms from trading on stale quotes.HarpalSandhu, CEO of Integral, called the deal a deepening of "our longstandingrelationship with StoneX, which spans over 15 years."For Integral, founded in 1993 and based in Palo Alto, theStoneX extension is a way to fill the extra SG1 capacity it just added. The companysells cloud-based FX workflow tools to banks, brokers and payment firms,competing with the likes of oneZero and smartTrade for institutionalconnectivity business.Brokers Line Up Behind theSG1 FacilityStoneX isnot the first to push Asian business through Integral's Singapore footprint. InNovember, Phillip Securities tapped Integral to move into institutional FX,using the vendor's pricing and distribution systems to handlecontract-for-difference trades.Beforethat, Singapore's Straits Financial extended itsIntegral deal to SG1to handle gold and other precious metals, the same asset class StoneX is nowtargeting in the region.Rivalvendors have made comparable moves to sit close to regional liquidity. oneZero,one of Integral's main competitors, set up at Equinix's LD4 site in London to cut latency for European andMiddle Eastern clients, the standard route to getting trading servers next tothe dealers that quote prices.StoneX Pushes Further IntoAsia and New ProductsTheSingapore link fits a wider expansion at StoneX, which has been addinglicenses, offices and product lines. In January,its digital assets arm picked up a crypto license under theEU's MiCA regimethrough the Central Bank of Ireland, and the group has opened offices in Indiaand agreed to buy U.S. futures broker R.J. O'Brien.The firm,which also owns retail brands Forex.com and City Index, has seen FX and CFD volumes keep rising evenas revenue per million traded has slipped. Precious metals, the second asset class namedin the Singapore deal, has been a growth area for the group across Asia.Thecompanies did not say when the Singapore connection would go live or whetherfurther regions were planned.This article was written by Damian Chmiel at www.financemagnates.com.