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"In order to help the industry cope with the high volumes, CLS allowed its members more time to submit these exceptional volumes and stayed open for an extended period during the weekend" Jonathan Butterfield, CLS Bank |
Ostensibly, the foreign exchange market coped more than adequately with the surge in activity resulting from global risk aversion in August, and several platforms reported record levels of activity. Icap disclosed that $456 billion changed hands on its EBS spot platform on August 16, a near 50% increase on its previous record day of $306.8 billion set at the end of July. Given EBS’s leading position at the market’s hub, the activity on its platform serves as a relatively reliable barometer for what was also occurring on other trading systems. There are few reports of any major problems further along the deal chain. While it is true that CLS Bank extended its settlement period into the weekend starting August 17, this seems to have been done to ease the pressure on its member banks rather than because of any structural problems. "Following exceptional volume increases in the FX market during the week of August 13, CLS was able to handle the increasing numbers of instructions sent to the system and execute settlement within the normal timeframes throughout this period and into the following week," says Jonathan Butterfield, executive vice-president, marketing & communication, CLS Bank International.