Some 94% of buy-side and sell-side firms now use liquidity aggregation in their FX trading systems, compared with 65% last year, according to a survey conducted by StreamBase Systems, a Lexington, Massachusetts-based technology firm that builds systems for real-time data streaming.

Clive Banks, head of FX and local market sales at BNP Paribas in London, is leaving the bank, a company spokesperson has confirmed.

The latest Commitment of Traders report issued on Friday by the CFTC shows that position taking is at the lowest levels since January.

Regulators need to consider carefully the impact of high-frequency and other types of automated trading in financial markets, before imposing new regulations, say the two trade groups that represent US and European principal trading firms (PTFs).

Two foreign banks and four local Chinese banks have joined the onshore yuan options market, bringing the total number of market makers to 20, reports Derivatives Intelligence, a sister publication of EuromoneyFXNews.com

After speculation that the Swiss National Bank would impose a currency peg linked to the euro, the SNB decided Wednesday to hold off from intervening directly in the FX markets, preferring to extend measures already in place to curb further strengthening of the Swiss franc.

Citigroup has made 3 new redundancies in its FX division in London.

Reduced activity, tighter spreads due to growing competition and the Japanese tsunami in March, continued to depress profitability in the FX businesses of the major FX banks, particularly in Europe, according to a report by the consultancy firm Coalition.

Standard Chartered has hired Mike Keogh from Deutsche Bank as a sterling trader based in New York, sources have told EuromoneyFXNews.

Broader shifts in the value of the Australian Dollar may be less influenced by global risk sentiment, or in other words the ‘risk-on, risk-off’ currency plays, and more by price movements in key metals such as copper, says Deutsche Bank.

Jon Vollemaere, one of two founders of FXecosystem, the network solutions company that builds global connectivity in the FX markets, has left the firm, a company spokesperson has confirmed. He had held the title of Global Head of Strategy.

Hotspot FX, the multi-dealer platform owned by Knight Capital Group, said average daily FX trading volumes for July fell 7% from the previous month.

Citigroup has made 3 new redundancies in its FX division in London.

The latest CNY fixing saw the yuan strengthen beyond the 6.4 per dollar mark for the first time in 17 years, while the 4-day cumulative 460 pip move lower in the fixing, was the second biggest over that time frame, following a slightly bigger adjustment last September. According to the most ardent observers of China’s currency policy, it represents a significant shift in policy.

Michael Walsh, head of institutional FX sales for the UK and Ireland, has left the firm, according to sources who have spoken to EuromoneyFXNews.

Mark Barnes, the former global head of FX trading at Royal Bank of Scotland, will return from sabbatical leave in October, EuromoneyFXNews can reveal.

The CME Group has raised margin requirements on FX futures contracts, US Treasury futures, and metal futures in response to increased market volatility. This follows changes made by the IntercontinentalExchange (ICE) to margin requirements on the US-dollar index and several currency pairs that took effect on Monday.

Société Générale has hired Rob Philbin from Barclays Capital as its chief dealer in the US. Philbin, who will be based in New York, will report to Dan O’Sullivan, global co-head of FX trading.

The euro-Swiss franc one-month implied volatility spiked to a new record high of 22.5% on Tuesday as option traders scurried to cover short positions amid continued safe-haven buying of the CHF by investors as global equity markets continued to tumble. Yet option pricing across all the major currency pairs suggests risk aversion is still some way off the levels of 2008.

CLS Group, the multi-currency cash-settlement system that eliminates FX settlement risk, said average daily volumes in July fell from the previous month to $4.87 trillion, although they rose 24% year-on-year, from $3.93 trillion. CLS settled an average daily volume of 801,815 instructions in the month, which was down 2% on June, CLS said in a statement today.

As the dust settles after the Bank of Japan’s currency intervention this week, positioning data from some sectors of the market suggests that the authorities might face some headwinds in their quest to depreciate the yen.

HSBC has hired Ed Scudamore from Royal Bank of Canada to trade G10 spot in Hong Kong, a HSBC spokesperson has confirmed

Citigroup has topped Asiamoney’s poll of foreign-exchange trading banks in Asia, rising two places to dethrone HSBC as the region’s most popular bank for FX service provision. Asiamoney, a sister publication of EuromoneyFXNews, ranks banks on the basis of client service ratings.

The Bank of Japan has followed the Swiss National Bank’s action yesterday in intervening to slow the appreciation of its currency. While the SNB targeted near-zero interest rates, the BoJ has intervened directly in the currency markets.

“In gold we trust” goes the old mantra in times of uncertainty, and this seems to be making something of a comeback as the precious metal comes to be seen as the only remaining safe haven. However, the current level is still nearly one-third lower than gold’s January 1980 peak at today’s dollar prices: gold would need to rally to $2,100/oz to top that mark.

Moves by the Swiss National Bank to curb the recent appreciation of the Swiss franc have heightened the risk that the Bank of Japan might soon be forced to intervene in the FX markets to weaken its own currency. As a result, dollar-yen volatilities remained elevated on Wednesday as investors piled on bets, with the yen likely to breach levels below 77.00.

Thomson Reuters, the inter-dealer trading platform, said average daily FX trading volumes fell 3.8% in July from the previous month. The volumes incorporate all of Thomson’s three FX trading platforms, Thomson Reuters Dealing, Matching and Reuters Trading for FX.

The world of regulated swap execution facilities is set to open up for the FX markets in the coming months, as an army of new multi-dealer option trading platforms starts full operations in preparation for new regulations on the trading of over-the-counter derivatives.

The Swiss National Bank’s attempt to stop the appreciation of the Swiss franc, in which it has reached record highs against the euro and dollar, might have limited success, according to FX strategists. Although the market response to the SNB’s announcement on Wednesday was encouraging, analysts doubt the long-term effectiveness of the policy.

Keith Underwood has been hired by Lloyds Banking Group as head of FX trading for the Americas to be based in New York, EuromoneyFXNews can reveal.