Global FX volume/Global e-FX volume

Find out how regulation is changing the FX market for everyone; who's best for trading what currency where; and information about the FX Survey and FX Respondent Reports.

LatAm continued to account for the 7th greatest volume of e-FX activity in 2013. 1% of global electronic volumes took place in 2013 up from 0.75% in 2012.

NA continued to account for the second greatest volume of e-FX activity in 2013. 27% of global electronic volumes took place in 2013.

FX market users in LatAm continued to account for the 6th greatest volume of FX activity globally:

Global FX volume/Global e-FX volume

Global FX volume/Global e-FX volume

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 unrivalled liquidity and ultra-tight pricing for clients?

Nadir Mahmud smiles at the irony of it. He’s been global head of Citi’s foreign exchange business for only a matter of weeks, and he’s already achieved something that has been a clear ambition of the bank for more than a decade: to reclaim its position as the leading global foreign exchange house.

View the results now.

Citi reclaims top ranking in benchmark Euromoney Foreign Exchange Survey

Rumours have been circulating in the foreign exchange markets for some weeks that investigations – both internal by banks and external by regulators – will extend to bankers' use of personal accounts (PA).

The Federal Reserve is playing mind games by trying to persuade investors that the biggest danger to economic stability is deflation. It is both disingenuous and bad news for the dollar.

James Wood-Collins, London-based CEO of Record Currency Management, says the expansion of the FX market, which hit average daily volumes of $5.3 trillion in 2013, is a boost to alpha-seeking funds. However, as dealer participation has stagnated, it has also created challenges.

For a long time the foreign exchange market boasted a depth of liquidity that few other asset classes could claim. Steadily rising trading volume and a resilient market structure meant regulators didn’t really need to worry about the potential for a flash crash or liquidity event in FX.

Contents:

Barclays estimates 300% fall in bolivar; deficit should fall to 10%.

Lars Seier Christensen and other speakers at Saxo Bank event share concerns that, despite appearances, the eurozone has not averted the threat of break-up and blasts EU’s “totalitarian model”

Analysts pronounce an imminent end to the Swiss franc bull run, citing new safe-haven trades and the global economic recovery.

Key players in the global foreign-exchange community are lobbying the European Commission to widen the definition of spot FX and free up companies from onerous reporting requirements, before a vital consultation on the subject closes for comments in a fortnight.

Though Germany lacks sizeable RMB deposits and liquidity, Frankfurt is well-positioned to intermediate trading flows between China and the eurozone, but it lacks London’s financial depth.

Swap traders are furious at what they describe as a “royal regulatory cock up” as frontloading comes to the fore and they struggle to price swaps, while Europe’s financial regulator has yet to announce a solution despite crisis talks earlier this month.

How rising US short-term rates would complicate China’s credit challenge amid fears that a second, bank-led wave of outflows from emerging markets could be on the horizon.

The sharp jump in cross-border lending to China in recent years means capital controls are de facto broken. As a result, Beijing faces the “impossible trinity” – an inability to manage exchange rates, monetary policy and allow for free movement of capital, all at the same time. China faces an renminbi-policy crisis just as much as a potential credit crisis.

Senior representatives from banks, clearing houses and CLS will meet in London on April 24 as pressure grows to find a workable mechanism for central clearing of forex options.

Draghi attempted to convince markets at Thursday’s press briefing that the ECB has officially awarded itself some new monetary policy tools – with the most dramatic being QE – as it frets over the prospect of the eurozone sliding into deflation.

With market volatility near all-time lows, and no single strategy consistently effective in generating outsized profits, investors and traders are looking to increase leverage to generate absolute returns.