Citi takes top spot for first time since 2002
Deutsche Bank misses out on achieving 10th consecutive year at top of survey by narrow margin
Bank of America Merrill Lynch, BNP Paribas, Standard Chartered and ANZ among biggest risers in top 20
RBS and Credit Suisse suffer big falls in volume and ranking
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Citi has beaten Deutsche Bank, winner for the previous nine years, by a narrow margin to top the overall market-share rankings in Euromoney's 2014 FX survey. The victory heralds a remarkable turnaround in Citi’s global foreign exchange business over the past five years.
Citi had dominated the Euromoney survey since its inception in 1976, winning the overall ranking for the first 23 years.
The market share of each of the top five banks rose this year, with Citi recording a rise in market share of 1.14 percentage points. In total, the market share of the top five banks was 60.62%, compared to 57.36% last year. It is the first time the combined market share of the top five banks has exceeded 60% since 2009.
Under former head of foreign exchange and local markets Anil Prasad, Citi took businesses with a regional focus and turned them into a global franchise. The bank also invested heavily in technology through its Velocity platform, which helped narrow the gap in e-trading to Deutsche Bank, and built an institutional platform that mirrors Citi’s traditional strengths in corporate and retail FX.
Nadir Mahmud, who succeeded Prasad as global head of FXLM when he left Citi earlier this year, said: “Our return to the top of the Euromoney FX Poll is a validation of our continuing effort to better serve our clients by providing them the best pricing, trade execution and advisory services in the industry.”
Despite slipping one place in the rankings, Deutsche Bank increased its market share by 0.49 percentage points. The German bank maintained leadership in electronic trading, with a market share of 17.84% to second-placed Citi’s 16.94%. Deutsche remains the clear leader in the options market, with a share of more than 18% – more than 7% higher than nearest rivals Citi, Barclays and Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
BofA Merrill was the most improved among the top 10 global FX houses, rising from 10th to seventh place this year. Its market share was 4.38%, up 1.30 percentage points on its 2013 ranking. The US bank is also the biggest gainer in market share from corporate clients over the past five years: its volumes from corporates have risen 151% since 2010, compared with second-ranked Citi’s rise by 137%. The bank has combined the previous strengths of Bank of America and Merrill Lynch in corporate and institutional business and is now clearly the biggest challenger to the incumbent top six FX houses.
The leading three Australian banks continue to build market share and rise up the rankings this year. ANZ broke into the top 20 overall and doubled its market share to 0.61%. NAB grew its volumes by 81%, and Westpac by 72%. The next biggest riser by market share, Standard Chartered, grew volumes by 50% and rose from 17th to 14th place in the overall rankings.
In the past three years, the Australian banks have been by far the biggest improvers in the overall rankings, helped by their banks’ strong ratings and the growth of business in Asia. NAB has risen 25 places since 2011 to its current ranking of 23rd; ANZ has risen 22 places over the same time to 20th place; and Westpac now ranks 17th, compared with 27th three years ago.
RBS suffered by far the biggest fall in market share, from 5.62% in 2013 to 3.25% this year, falling from seventh to eighth place overall. As recently as 2009, RBS ranked fourth in the survey, with a market share of 8.19%.
The biggest rankings faller in the top 20 was Credit Suisse, which falls four places to 12th, its volumes down 1.63%. Morgan Stanley is the other bank to drop out of the top 10, from ninth to 11th place.
Their places in the top 10 are taken by BNP Paribas, which rises from 12th to ninth place, increasing its market share by 0.58 percentage points; and Goldman Sachs, up one place to 10th overall, despite a decline in volumes of 0.22%.
Thomson Reuters FXall maintains its leadership of the multi-bank and independent platform market share, with 26.04%. The rest of the top three remained unchanged, with FXConnect in second place and 360 Treasury Systems third.
| Rising up the Euromoney FX overall rankings | ||||
| Top 10 risers in overall rating, 2011 to 2014 | ||||
| Bank | Rank change since 2011 | Market share change (%) | Volume change ($mln) | Volume change (%) |
| National Australia Bank | 25 | 0.43 | 1,012,005 | 694.3 |
| ANZ Banking Group | 22 | 0.52 | 1,205,097 | 725.6 |
| Westpac Banking Corporation | 10 | 0.6 | 1,534,418 | 241.3 |
| BBVA | 9 | 0.13 | 386,335 | 104.1 |
| State Street | 6 | 0.69 | 1,772,736 | 223.8 |
| Bank of America Merrill Lynch | 5 | 1.43 | 4,634,197 | 88.7 |
| Citi | 3 | 7.18 | 20,402,779 | 129.7 |
| Standard Chartered | 3 | 0.31 | 1,207,185 | 63.8 |
| Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation | 3 | 0.01 | 152,254 | 31.5 |
| Natixis | 3 | 0.04 | 199,956 | 47.5 |
| Source: EuromoneyFXMarketData |
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The Euromoney foreign exchange survey, first launched in 1976, remains the key benchmark for the global FX industry.
At a time when the FX markets are under intense scrutiny, the Euromoney FX survey continues to provide unrivalled transparency and insight into the industry’s leading players, with all data based on the votes and volumes recorded by banks’ clients.
This year, Euromoney registered 14,050 verified votes, accounting for a total volume of $225 trillion.
The results of the survey are published today online at euromoney.com, along with analysis of the results and a detailed report on how the current investigations into alleged malpractice in the FX markets are affecting the industry. In the report, entitled ‘Foreign exchange’s reign of terror’, Euromoney says: “Investigations into allegations of market fixing in foreign exchange are spreading into the very heart of the business. Those running the world's biggest FX houses live in fear of what analysis of hundreds of millions of calls and emails will unearth. Do investigators and regulators risk bringing down the axe on a market that has always provided unrivaled liquidity and ultra-tight pricing for clients?”
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
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