The three main OTC FX platforms have now reported their Apr 2014 volumes.
FXall volumes although virtually unchanged, are still a new record high at $132.3bln/day. Whilst Reuters matching vols were off -18.2% at $90bln/day, and last week, EBS reported a -22.3% drop in volumes.
Last week ICAP also released figures for EBSDirect their new disclosed relationship based price streaming service, which has shown strong growth since its official launch late last year. With EBSDirect volumes in early May 14 hitting $9bln/day, which would equate to some 10% of total EBS monthly volumes.
FXall: $132.3bln/day, up 0.23% on the $132bln/day in Mar 2014, and some 22.5% up compared to Apr 2013 level of $108bln/day.
Reuters Matching: $90bln/day, down 18.2% on the $110bln/day in Mar 2014, and down 30.8% compared to Apr 2013 level of $130bln/day.
EBS: $68.5bln/day, down 22.3% on the $88.2bln/day in Mar 2014, and down 46.6% compared to Apr 2013 level of $128.3bln/day.
Hotspot: $25.2bln/day, down 21.5% on the $32.1bln/day in Mar 2014, and down 14.6% compared to Apr 2013 level of $29.5bln/day.
FX volumes for Reuters, FXall and EBS- March 2014
Left chart is actual volumes, and righ chart is indexed based at Jan 2011.
The chart below shows EBSDirect volumes as released by ICAP, and distribution of volume between majors and non-major currencies.
Data from ICAP Full year presentation here
As can be seen, 33% of the EBSDirect volumes were in non-major currency pairs (compared to just 13% in EBS Market). According to ICAP, whilst approx 500 customers have signed for the service including 30 non-bank institutions, of which 180 have already traded.
Looking at EBSDirect volumes compared to EBSMarket, we can see the increasing importance of EBSDirect to ICAP.
