In 2007 Royal Bank of Scotland and Barclays stood head to head, as they tussled for control of ABN Amro. In the end, RBS won that scrap but Barclays has been winning most battles ever since. In foreign exchange, the two banks have developed very similar global markets franchises; they shared a very similar footprint, spoke to a similar set of clients, and also established themselves as top-five players.

The Japanese bank’s acquisition of former Lehman Brothers businesses has greatly enhanced its position in the FX market. Alexandra Fletcher reports.

BNP Paribas and Société Générale both broke into the top six of banks catering for non-financial institutions in this year’s FX survey. Trevor Carr reports.

The results of this year’s Euromoney FX survey suggest that, rather than cement the dominant position of leading banks, e-commerce could offer firms that have lagged behind the chance to catch up. But they’d better do it soon – rich rewards await those that can secure the largest pools of liquidity. Hamish Risk reports.

The Euromoney foreign exchange survey is the most comprehensive quantitative and qualitative annual study available on the FX markets. The FX market is an unregulated OTC market and there are no reliable, aggregated, global statistics made available against which to benchmark the survey outside the tri-annual BIS studies. The survey also excludes a number of categories of market participant, which means that the total volume reported by the poll is not and is not intended to be an accurate reflection of total global foreign exchange activity. However, given the geographical and participant-type spread represented by the poll, Euromoney believes that the survey provides an accurate proxy for trends in the major areas of activity polled and accurately discerns the relative performance of the banks ranked, particularly over periods of two or more years.

The Euromoney Foreign Exchange survey is the most comprehensive quantitative and qualitative annual study available on the FX markets. The FX market is an unregulated OTC market and there are no reliable, aggregated, global statistics made available against which to benchmark the survey outside the tri-annual BIS studies. The survey also excludes a number of categories of market participant, which means that the total volume reported by the poll is not and is not intended to be an accurate reflection of total global foreign exchange activity. However, given the geographical and participant-type spread represented by the poll, Euromoney believes that the survey provides an accurate proxy for trends in the major areas of activity polled and accurately discerns the relative performance of the banks ranked, particularly over periods of two or more years.

The top-five banks in the 2009 Euromoney FX poll remain the same as in 2008 despite big sub-prime losses. As senior FX bankers make clear, a leading position in the market reflects an established set of relationships that aspirant banks find hard to build, whatever their creditworthiness. Lee Oliver reports.

Foreign exchange has arguably held up better than any other financial market in the fallout from the sub-prime crisis. Will its robustness result in it being taken more seriously as both a business and as an asset class? And which banks have fared best in Euromoney’s benchmark industry poll?