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Interest in pound tapers as buyers in Singapore play waiting game

SINGAPORE — After the British currency exchange frenzy last Friday following the outcome of the Brexit referendum in the United Kingdom, the mood was more muted at moneychangers in Singapore on Monday (June 27).

SINGAPORE — After the British currency exchange frenzy last Friday following the outcome of the Brexit referendum in the United Kingdom, the mood was more muted at moneychangers in Singapore on Monday (June 27).

While a moneychanger TODAY interviewed at The Arcade in Raffles Place continued to see high levels of interest in buying pounds, others in the same building said that the interest level had tapered off somewhat, with customers appearing to adopt a wait-and-see attitude in anticipation of further drops in value against Singapore’s dollar.

Mr Arshad Hassan, 36, an operations manager at Sheen International Exchange, said that several of their customers even phoned in to check on the rates and to get advice on whether it was a good time to change now.

He and his team managed to sell about 40,000 pounds on Monday, which was less than half of what they usually sell on a typical day. Mr Arshad added that they were following cues from their main suppliers, who were waiting for “some real stability in the pound sterling before they can really go and lower the price”.

“Once the rate stabilises, then we will start to see the rates align with the interbank rates,” he said. The exchange rate at the outlet was S$1.894 to the pound.

A staff member at City Money Changers, who did not want to be named, said: “Now I think people are just waiting for the price to drop even further (before exchanging more pounds) ... Nobody really knows if it’s going to weaken further but there is much possibility.”

The shop’s exchange rate was S$1.885 to the pound, and it saw “more people” buying last Friday “because of the sudden drop in prices” compared with Monday.

At the other end of the scale, Mr Riyath, 38, a compliance officer at MM Shariff Traders, said that they had a lot more interest from customers buying pounds. He said that customers usually bought about 20,000 to 30,000 pounds on a typical day. Due to the lower rates now, the shop was forced to get 100,000 pounds to cater to its customers and it was already down to its last 10,000 pounds by 3pm on Monday.

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