Bloomberg has been named winner of the Financial Markets Infrastructure Services (Wholesale) category at the Central Banking Awards 2026, with judges citing its work in helping to build transparent and liquid foreign exchange markets in Nigeria and Sri Lanka.
The win recognises Bloomberg’s rollout of an anonymous electronic central order limit book as well as enhancements to its auction system, which have helped central banks build essential foreign exchange infrastructure and allowed treasury departments to optimise debt auctions.
Nigeria and Sri Lanka are the two most recent markets to adopt Bloomberg’s BMatch solution for interbank trading in the local spot foreign exchange market. The platform allows anonymous orders to be placed and matched with counterparty orders, promoting more efficient market functioning and improved price discovery.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) introduced the Electronic Foreign Exchange Matching System (EFEMS), powered by Bloomberg BMatch, transforming FX trading through mandatory order submission, real-time regulatory visibility, and improved price discovery.
Nicholas Bean, Global Head of Electronic Markets at Bloomberg, said the recognition reflected the combined impact of its BMatch and Bloomberg Auction System (BAS) solutions across both interbank foreign exchange trading and sovereign debt issuance.
Andrew Beacham, Global Head of Emerging Markets Trading Product at Bloomberg, noted that deploying switch auctions required close coordination between the auctioneer and primary dealers. “Our clients really appreciated the efficiency and cost savings this brings,” he said.
Bloomberg’s switch operations have also helped the Portuguese and Ukrainian treasuries run their debt management more smoothly, through the simultaneous sale and purchase of government bonds in a single transaction, eliminating the need for separate buy and sell auctions.
The Bloomberg award comes at a moment of wider recognition for Nigeria’s financial reform agenda. The CBN itself was named Central Bank of the Year 2026 at the same awards ceremony, with other top honours going to former Bank of England Governor Mervyn King for lifetime achievement and United States Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell as Governor of the Year.
CBN Governor Olayemi Cardoso’s leadership team was credited with reversing years of unorthodox monetary policy, rebuilding investor and public confidence, and overseeing a transition to a willing-buyer, willing-seller foreign exchange framework that replaced a multiple-window regime.
EAll Share Index also grew by 324.21 basis points to 202023.10 points from 201698.89 points reported on Friday.
Although the market breadth was negative with 32 decliners against 23 advancers the gains recorded in some capitalised stocks boosted trading activities, bringing year to date return higher to 29.83 per cent.
An analysis of the trading for the day showed that Trans Express led gainers table with 9.86 per cent to N3.12 per unit, Omatek followed with a gain of 9.76 per cent to close at N2.25 per unit, Cadbury Nigeria Plc gained 9.53 per cent to close at N75.25 per unit, FirstHoldco added 9.10 per cent to N54.55 per unit, FTGInsurance gained 5.69 per cent to close at N1.30 per unit.
On the contrary, EllahLakes topped losers chart, dropping by 10 per cent to close at N10.80 per unit, Daar Communications trailed with a loss of 9.15 per cent to close at N1.72 per unit, Chams Plc dipped by 9.87 per cent to close at N3.38 per share, JohnHolt dipped by 9.71 per cent to close at N13.95 per share, SUNUAssurance dropped by 9.68 per cent to close at N4.20 per unit.
Volume of trades went up by 592.020 million, representing 105.72 per cent as investors traded 1.152 billion shares against 559.980 million shares. Value of transactions rose by 109.14 per cent to settle at N40.28 billion against N19.260 billion reported previously in 76006 deals.
Trading in the shares of Wema Bank led market activities with 282.584 million shares worth N7.291 billion, Access Holdings company followed with 125.175 million shares cost N3.250 billion, VFD group exchanged 106.751 million shares worth N1.126 billion, First Holdco traded 62.962 million shares valued at N3.185 billion while GTCO Plc sold a total of 56.586 million shares cost N7.054 billion.
