FX survey 2015 commentary: Asia

Euromoney says:

Asia is the battleground for much of the global investment banking industry. And as more Asian corporates grow their share of global trade, and the renminbi continues its inexorable rise to become one of the world’s most traded currencies, that’s truer in FX than perhaps in any other sector.

It’s worth looking at how FX volumes in Asia have changed over the past five years. In 2010, Deutsche Bank dominated with a market share of more than 22%. It still leads this year, but its market share has fallen.

In 2010, Citi was clearly underperforming in Asia given its footprint in the region. Now it’s narrowing the gap to Deutsche fast.

Barclays and UBS used to be the closest challengers; both have seen considerable declines in Asian market shares over the past five years.

BAML, on the other hand, has increased its market share dramatically: the legacy, perhaps, of recently departed Asia markets chief Loh Boon Chye, who previously had built Deutsche’s unassailable position in the region.

If Standard Chartered should rank highly in any region, it’s Asia. And gradually, it’s starting to make its presence felt from a volume standpoint. This year it rose from ninth to seventh place overall in the region. This completes a good year all round for StanChart, which jumped from 14^th to 12^th place in the overall global rankings, from 14^th to ninth in global spot/forward, from 15^th to 8^th in global leveraged funds, from 15^th to 11^th.