"At the start of last year there were still a lot of wannabes in this business," says David Barnett, vice-president, trading, Europe and Asia, for Royal Bank of Canada. "Now it's pretty clear to everyone that there are a maximum of 20 major players. And within that group, the big boys are pulling away and the rest are scrambling to keep up with them."
A combination of bank consolidation, corporate mergers, the Asian crisis and the growing role of technology is responsible for this. For the top tier they present a new series of opportunities (assuming they don't fall victim to a vicious merger or takeover); for the rest, it's crunch time.
The introduction of the electronic broking system and Reuters' foreign exchange trading system in the mid-1990s has made dealing prices more transparent and driven...
More information on foreign exchange
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