In just a year since entering Australia’s energy trading market, the firm has become the leading participant in the country’s electricity market, seizing a gap left by traditional banks and capitalising on a surge of institutional investment.
Senior vice president of derivatives, Nick Orssich, said hedge funds and global trading firms are flocking to Australia, attracted by its position as the world’s largest electricity market, while carbon and environmental products are emerging as financial assets in their own right – further expanding StoneX’s footprint in the region.
“In Australia, we’ve been focusing a lot on the electricity and carbon space recently. There’s been a big gap in that market for us down here. We’re seeing a lot of money moved down here.
“Managed money, hedge funds, coming down to Australia to participate in those markets – I think they’re targeting Australia because of the likeness in markets to the Japanese market.”
Orssich said the firm identified a structural gap: most clearing services were dominated by banks, leaving mid-sized institutional investors underserved.
“The opportunity was that there’s not a lot of clearers out there who can service those markets. We’ve gone from entering that market a year ago to now becoming the number one trading participant on that electricity space down here.”
By stepping in, StoneX now facilitates large-scale trades across electricity, carbon and environmental products, catering to both domestic and international funds.
The move comes amid growing demand for risk management tools in energy markets, as price volatility and regulatory shifts drive investors to seek reliable clearing and execution services.
Orssich said the firm’s growth highlights a broader trend: institutional demand for alternative clearing and execution solutions is rising as market participants navigate higher costs, regulatory changes and concentrated market structures.
“I think it goes back to the cost of servicing certain customers. We have access to over 40 different exchanges. We see gaps in the market, we focus on them, and because we’re not a bank, it could be slightly more nimble in going up to those opportunities.”
Orssich emphasised the firm has capitalised on gaps left by traditional banks.
“Clients that we thought we could target just weren’t getting the service from a bank. They weren’t meeting the threshold. AUM, they weren’t generating enough revenue for the banks,” Orssich said.
StoneX spotted a growing pool of mid-sized funds and institutions who had been “pushed out” by rising costs and AUM thresholds, offering them a nimble, non-bank alternative.
“Essentially, they were getting off-boarded and there wasn’t a lot of space for them to go to. We thought we could step into that space from an institutional perspective.”
By combining global reach with local servicing, StoneX said it is “reshaping” what institutional-grade clearing looks like in a market once dominated by banks.
“We don’t want to be competing with the banks. There’s a gap in the market for us to participate in and kind of give the same level of service as a bank would offer.
“Any funds that don’t have an AUM of probably 2 billion, they’re getting pushed out from the banking space … there’s been a noticeable rise in institutional demand for alternative clearing and execution solutions.”
Since becoming an ASX clearing member in 2022, the company has expanded its presence in electricity and carbon trading, while offering institutional clients access to over 40 global exchanges.
Beyond electricity, StoneX is seeing strong interest in gold due to central bank buying, geopolitical instability and peaking yields, with the firm also offering gold as collateral for futures trading.
Orssich said cryptocurrency has also taken a massive strike forward.
“We’re seeing more and more interest in that space and we’re one of the only participants that is able to cross-utilise assets across crypto and futures at the same time. I think having the broad offering that we do and the access to different asset classes is key.”
