Their average daily FX spot volumes for this month were in excess of $143 billion, the same as the previous month. These figures have been their highest since they began taking records last April.
A Thomson Reuters spokesman told us on Thursday: “FX trading volumes on our trading platforms have remained consistently high due to continued market volatility and the view that the general appetite for risk is creeping upwards. Given Thomson Reuters heritage in emerging market currency pairs, it is no surprise to learn that the increased turnover in commonwealth currencies of Aussie, Canadian and New Zealand dollar made a strong contribution to overall volumes.”
Icap released their figures on Thursday for their EBS platform – average daily volume in spot FX was $164.8 billion in February. This was their highest level since November 2009, when it hit $167.4 billion.
EBS continued to see an increase in trading activity in Commonwealth and emerging markets currencies, particularly in AUD, ZAR and MXN.
David Rutter, deputy CEO of Icap electronic broking, says: “The continued volatility in the FX markets is driving renewed growth on EBS. We are seeing increasingly active trading across a very diverse group of currencies.”
CLS say February saw a surge in trading values and volumes for spot. The upward trend continued for trades up to and including 1 million in base currency.
CLS participation has also continued to grow. The total number of participants – banks, other financial institutions, corporations and individual funds – continued to increase and currently totals 7,520, up 68% on February a year ago.
CLS averaged a new record daily volume of settled instructions during February, of 775,027. Prior to this the highest average volume month was October 2008 at the height of the financial crisis, when volumes were around 728,000. February 16 also saw CLS settle a record daily volume of 1,733,262 sides. Average daily values settled in the month were $3.88 trillion.
