SINGAPORE, Oct. 20 -- Singapore Exchange launched the Renminbi futures on Monday to add to its suite of Asian foreign exchange futures.

The USD/CNH and CNY/USD pairs achieved a first day volume of 1, 846 contracts worth about 1.1 billion yuan (180 million U.S. dollars) in notional value, the bourse said.

Trading was robust with active participation from a diverse pool of counterparties. Market makers and key participants for the contracts include Bank of China Singapore Branch, DBS Bank, ICBC Singapore Branch, Quantrun Investment Management and Virtu Financial, it added.

In support of the product launch, more than RMB 1 billion cash has been deposited with the exchange as margin collateral by market participants. SGX has recently announced the addition of RMB cash collateral to its list of acceptable margin collateral.

Guo Ning Ning, general manager of Bank of China Singapore Branch, the pioneer market-maker for the newly launched RMB futures, said that the bank will continue to leverage its expertise in RMB businesses to enable global investors to more easily invest in RMB futures.

Singapore is the largest foreign exchange center in Asia, and the largest offshore RMB clearing centre outside China.