Daily cost analysis coming; Protects against client litigation

Service enables trading on news; High-end product will eventually reach retail

FX trading volumes on three of the market’s biggest dealing platforms – Thomson Reuters, CME Group and FXall – increased in September after a slump in trading volatility in August.

JPMorgan has appointed a new European head of FX to replace Troy Rohrbaugh, who in June was promoted to global head of FX and rates, and has since relocated to New York, a bank spokesperson confirms

A rise in September of Swiss National Bank (SNB) holdings of foreign currency reserves does not necessarily mean that the central bank is going to begin diversifying its holdings any time soon, say two FX strategists.

Top-ranked foreign exchange house Deutsche Bank aims to consolidate its leadership with a new twist on APIs. Rivals say the development is spin rather than substance. In a market where technology plays such a vital role, they’ll be hoping they’re right.

Spot FX volumes at EBS, the Icap-owned electronic broker, went up in September after volatility returned to the market through the EUR, which was bolstered by the European Central Bank’s (ECB) christening of a new peripheral bond-buying programme.

Single-dealer bank FX platforms are best positioned to capture a greater share of FX trading volumes at a time when volume growth is beginning to plateau, according to a report by Oliver Wyman Group consultancy Celent.

Once upon a time, the FX markets were easier to trade. Currencies traded on their macroeconomic fundamentals, unimpeded by politics, and unconventional monetary policy. The carry trade was king.

The City of London Corporation initiative working to make London into an RMB trading hub has added three new banks to the steering committee coordinating the effort, says a City of London spokesman.

Westpac has hired a senior options trader from Credit Suisse for its London operation, according to the Financial Services Authority (FSA) register.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the UK are more willing to settle payments with Chinese suppliers in RMB, says money-transfer services provider Western Union Business Solutions.

The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has boosted its FX coverage with Italian institutions with the hire of an FX salesman from ADS Securities, a bank spokesman confirms.

There has been tough talk from Brazil after the Federal Reserve’s decision to implement QE3, but speculation of a re-emergence of global currency wars is wide of the mark.

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) is going to have to do a lot better than a 25-basis-point cut to the benchmark interest rate if it hopes to provide some impetus to an economic engine that seems to be running out of steam.

The USD net short position grew wider last week, with speculators on the CME sending the currency into territory last seen in the third quarter of 2011, as concerns about the bearish effects of the US Federal Reserve’s latest round of quantitative easing continue.

The Wall Street Journal today reported that futures exchange Deutsche Börse is considering relaunching currency futures in a bid to outmanoeuvre its long-term rival, the CME, which last month launched its European exchange, saying it would lead off with currency futures itself. To say Deutsche Börse is merely being reactive would be off the mark, however.

FX swaps and forwards should not be subjected to international margining regimes that might distort the market, says industry group the Global Financial Markets Association (GFMA).

Corporates looking to transact USDRUB could be the first group to benefit from new signs that the country’s domestic currency market is becoming more open.

This week we have taken an in-depth look at the proposed rules on uncleared FX swaps and forwards, and the FX industry’s arguments against some of the potential changes.

Morgan Stanley has joined FXSpotStream, an API-based electronic communication network (ECN) established by a consortium of leading banks, as a liquidity provider.

ANZ has hired two FX options traders from Standard Chartered, says an ANZ spokesperson.

The FX market is on Friday presenting its arguments to regulators as to why it thinks new proposed rules on imposing margins on uncleared FX swaps and forwards is out of proportion with the risks the products pose to the wider market.

London-based clearing house LCH.Clearnet says it has expanded the range of currencies cleared through its ForexClear business to cover 95% of the FX non-deliverable forward (NDF) market.

BNP Paribas, HSBC and RBS have begun using Traiana’s client clearing solution Harmony CCP Connect to reduce client over-the-counter (OTC) FX trading costs.

Barclays has revamped its UK retail FX platform in conjunction with FXCM, one of the world’s leading online currency brokers.

German corporates have gone long EURUSD for the first time in more than a year after a complete re-evaluation of their positions, following news of the European Central Bank’s new bond-purchasing programme.

The FX market should expect the cost of high-frequency trading (HFT) to increase if an EU parliament committee vote on a key piece of markets legislation on Wednesday eventually becomes law, say participants at an FX industry conference in London.

Much has been made of the fact that the strength in AUD has been driven by sovereign demand for Australian debt, but it is the foreign direct investment (FDI) sparked by the country’s mining boom that has been the real driver of the currency, argues ANZ.

Volumes on Hotspot FX, the multi-dealer platform owned by Knight Capital Group, are set to rise in September after a sharp drop in August, says Hotspot FX managing director and business manager William Goodbody.