Thanks to tighter capital requirements and a jump in corporate issuance, the relationship between US interest rate swaps and underlying treasuries is firmly in negative territory. Get used to it.

All the hard work of Abenomics has been undermined by weeks of frantic trading that has seen the yen appreciate dramatically on safe-haven flows, with QE and even an announcement on negative rates having little impact. The market is now waiting to see if the Bank of Japan has any more tricks up its sleeve.

The global FX code of conduct being developed by the FXWG under the auspices of the Bank for International Settlements has moved a step closer to becoming a reality, with a first draft being released to market participants for feedback.

Corporate treasurers are turning to dynamic hedging strategies in a bid to counteract extreme volatility in emerging market (EM) currencies, which can be notoriously tricky to hedge and even put a company’s credit rating in jeopardy.

A lack of clarity around the definitions of principal and agency trading, and the evolution of the grey area of the hybrid could give rise to further foreign-exchange scandals if the issue is unresolved. Markets and regulators are pro-actively putting these FX trading practices under the microscope.

It has been nearly 18 months since ParFX launched its Prime service, which enabled the prime broker banks among its clients to offer liquidity to their buy-side clients. Now it is looking to expand that to the PoP space, casting a wider net and bringing smaller funds into the fold, Euromoney can reveal.

FXCM has compiled a study that, perhaps unsurprisingly, finds it offers better prices on execution than what is available to institutional clients on the big three FX trading platforms. The regulatory push away from OTC trading and towards exchanges is fundamentally misguided, the online broker concludes.

The Bank of England (BoE) has recast the terms of reference and membership of a key foreign-exchange industry committee to take account of the growing diversity of the forex market in the UK and the central role that will be played by the new global code of conduct.

Gap between onshore and offshore exposed; Hong Kong dim sum market in doubt.

Iran is emerging from the shadows to re-establish itself as a prime player in the Middle East. Moves are afoot to rid the country of its black-market exchange rate and develop a working currency forward market.

For many prime brokers, 2015 was a chastening year amid rising macro risks, capital charges and innovation paving the way for a new breed of providers – but the traditional bank providers and the new entrants insist they target a different client base.

The past 12 months have seen fees rise in FX prime brokerage, with many admitting there is probably more to come this year – but it has not all been bad news for clients, with the business benefiting from innovation, with technology, and particularly risk-management systems, an increasing priority among providers.

The January fall in emerging market currencies, the exodus of foreign capital and a global bear market in equities all point to a new financial crisis. How China reacts to this threat holds the key for emerging markets.

Some of the changes this year include:

Businesses will need to closely manage their exposures to currencies this year to avert losses, as notable exchange-rate moves this month are already threatening to eat into profits, warn foreign-exchange experts.

Trading bets against the Saudi peg have jumped since the collapse in oil prices, despite the Kingdom’s sizeable FX reserves cushion.

FX sales teams are now more restricted in how much market colour they can provide to clients, challenging the relationship-driven industry.

CLS, the systemically important FX settlement system, has a number of plans in the pipeline, including an initiative with LCH.Clearnet and a settlement system for currencies outside its proprietary system.

This year will be driven by persistent volatility, a dollar rally, dealer intermediation and compliance fears.

Shared ledger threatens change.

What about the high-frequency traders?

While irked by western dominance of Swift and determined to assert its monetary independence, the prospect of Russia going it alone on payments and messaging remains remote.

Some 14 months after it was created, FXPA – the latest organization to put itself forward as the voice of the FX industry – is confident it is setting policymakers on the path to better market regulation.

Use of execution management systems continues to increase as markets become more fragmented.

FX monitoring and surveillance solutions have been beefed up since the fixing scandal broke, but inconsistencies persist in the way in which they are applied and, more generally, new systems lack a harmonized and automated approach.

A new range of foreign-exchange service providers and P2P fintech disruptors are coming to the aid of international charities, to help them get the most bang for their buck when donating money abroad and potentially save millions.

As if to prove the adage that ‘it’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good’, it appears January’s Swiss franc turmoil has had a positive impact on electronic price formation.

Progress has been made towards lowering post-trade costs in FX markets, but it is clear no single initiative has the ability to effect notable change.

Two years ago, a leading consultancy firm suggested all-to-all trading would become the norm by 2017. While progress has been made, it appears unlikely it will become the dominant FX model in little more than 12 months’ time.

Chastened by the 2012 volatility, Reserve Bank of India officials strike a cautious note about the virtues of rupee internationalization, as efforts to launch several offshore rupee bond issues gather pace. Market participants warn that liquidity and exchange-rate risk looms large on attempts to push greater usage of the currency abroad.