The chief executive of the Singapore Exchange said on Friday that he would step down next year as Asia’s second-largest listed bourse continues to feel the impact of global market turmoil.

“There comes a time to move on, to allow a new chief executive to take this organisation on to explore new vistas,” Hsieh Fu Hua, whose contract ends in September 2009, told the Financial Times. “I am committed to stay until my successor is firmly in place.”