WM/Reuters (WMR) has increased the frequency at which it publishes spot FX benchmark fixings for a basket of 21 trade currencies – a selection of the FX pairings with the USD that have the most liquidity in the market.

Oanda, one of the leading retail FX brokers, has hired internally to replace Antony Broadbent, who left the company in September after spending three years as its managing director for Europe.

The growing trend of international central bank usage of the RMB as a key component of their currency diversification efforts is changing the market’s perception of the Chinese currency, says an HSBC official.

Hotspot FX, the multi-dealer platform owned by Knight Capital Group, posted a strong gain in average daily volumes (ADVs) in September, realigning the firm with its competitors after a dismal set of August figures.

Jim O’Neill, chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, has delivered an upbeat assessment of the eurozone crisis, arguing the market has failed to fully appreciate the significance of the European Central Bank’s (ECB) pledge to do whatever it takes to save the euro.

A surge in volumes on Bloomberg’s multi-dealer FX platform FXGO is altering the landscape in the currency market, as it challenges the dominance of the market incumbents in the sector.

Wells Fargo has teamed with Integral Development Corporation, the California-based financial services software and systems developer, to create a new FX engine in an effort to widen the bank’s existing customer base in the market.

UK-based Record Currency Management saw the value of the currency assets it manages for clients increase in the company’s fiscal second quarter – this year’s third quarter – by $2.6 billion to $32.5 billion, with almost half of that money coming from new investor inflows.

State Street, the largest custodian bank for the FX market, saw its revenues from foreign currency trading activity fall by 43.6% year-on-year in the third quarter of 2012.

Japan’s balance of payments is worsening, but that alone is not enough to change its bullish stance on the yen, says BCA Research, one of the world’s leading independent providers of global investment research.

An agreement finalized between ICE Link and Traiana could ease long-term regulatory compliance costs for hundreds of buy-side firms.

Nordea, the largest bank in the Nordic region, has hired one of Saxo Bank’s leading e-commerce specialists to oversee the redevelopment of its electronic FX offering, the bank confirms.

Fixi, the London-based FX broker, has hired the former deputy global head of FX at MF Global to run its US operations.

This week we have found the FX market slipping comfortably into the third quarter with a range of news and analysis on old faithfuls such as the carry trade, the AUD, CHF and RMB, and some signs of volumes returning to the market.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAML) has hired a new head of Asia Pacific global markets.

There has been much speculation about the cause of a sudden surge in the renminbi, which has seen it hit a 19-year high against the dollar, but it could be the first sign that the global economy has overcome three main hurdles that have dogged it in recent years.

HSBC has launched its first algorithmic FX index in a bid to meet investor demand for alternative investment strategies and exposure to emerging markets.

The head of bank sales at FXall, the leading multi-dealer trading platform, has left the firm, a company spokesperson confirms.

The vast majority of the 40 big-figure rise in the Australian dollar since the start of global financial crisis has been during the London and New York time zones, a situation that might be about to change.

Federal Reserve vice-chairman Janet Yellen launched a robust defence of the US central bank’s policy of quantitative easing in Tokyo on Wednesday, claiming its positive contribution to global growth outweighed the negatives, principally excessive exchange-rate appreciation in emerging economies.

Federal Reserve vice-chairman Janet Yellen rebuffed criticism from emerging market economies over lax US monetary policy at the IMF annual meeting in Tokyo.

Citi held off the competition for the second year running to top Asiamoney’s 2012 survey of FX trading banks in Asia that provide access and services to the currencies markets.

The head of Credit Suisse’s FX sales for Asia Pacific has left the bank.

Infinium Capital Management, the Chicago-based electronic trading firm, has hired the former head of FX trading at Société Générale to build an FX options market-maker business.

EBS, Icap’s electronic FX trading platform, has hired Ben Tobin to work as director of liquidity management.

Despite the constraints of some banks’ reorganization and forced restructuring, as well as prolonged low interest rates, transaction banking has become a vital contributor to revenues. Those with a strong presence in the business would like to push harder still.

Recent high-profile cases have drawn attention to the financial and reputational risks for banks of breaches of money-laundering regulations. Banks need to change their cultures, but they also need to invest in technology to better assess risks in the complex international payments system.

Euromoney surveys cash managers, treasurers and financial officers worldwide. This is the most comprehensive guide to the cash management arena in the market.

HSBC and Standard Chartered (both of which declined to be interviewed for this article) were heavily criticized over the summer for stripping Swift payment messages to conceal the origins of transactions from banks in countries subject to US sanctions. HSBC acted as a correspondent to a number of Iranian banks and Saudi Arabia’s Al Rajhi Bank (for which it received cash deposits of around $1 billion from 2006 to 2010) while Standard Chartered was also charged with illegal transactions relating to Iranian banks.

FTSE Cürex, the recently launched joint venture of the UK-based global index provider and an FX technology firm, has set its sights on enriching liquidity in the market for offshore RMB with a range of new daily currency pair benchmarks.