May 1997
FX Poll 1997: Taken aback by a leap forward
The foreign exchange business is entering a period of rapid change. The lack of volatility in the market over the past 12 months has forced the big commercial banks, which have long dominated the business, to close offices and cut staff. In their place, our annual poll reveals, investment banks are winning a larger share of the business. The biggest surprise: Merrill Lynch, which jumps into the top 10 at number three. Antony Currie explains why.
Bankers have varying explanations why the HSBC group closed its New York foreign exchange trading operation for G7 currencies last September. Some blame management conflicts; others suggest losses on proprietary trades. Rob Loewy, HSBC Midland's head of foreign exchange, says that over 80% of trading took place when both the London and New York offices were open, and that it made more sense to house all the traders under one roof where risk mandates and liquidity were more favourable.
In...
More information on foreign exchange
The rest of this article is only available to subscribers
If you are already a subscriber please log in now to view this article, by entering your username (email address) and password at the top right-hand side of this page.
If you are not a subscriber just subscribe today for full access to this article. You can do this either by clicking the link or calling +44 (0)207 779 8999.
If you are a trialist or subscriber, please enter your username and password at the top right-hand side of euromoney.com
Subscribers to Euromoney benefit from:
- 12 months access in print and online - on euromoney.com, read the latest issue early online, search for specific developments by region or sector, interrogate the results of Euromoney's benchmark polls, and view the archive dating back to 1996
- More than 30 specialist research guides free
- The results of Euromoney’s polls and surveys
- Tailored RSS news feeds direct to your desktop
- News delivered directly to your mobile device or PC
- Personalised email newsfeed of 'Top stories' and 'Breaking news'
Click here to subscribe