Review of major FX Platforms volumes for June 2015

The major OTC FX platforms have now reported their Jun 15 volumes.

In terms of spot FX, EBS and FastMatch show decent 5%+ gains, whilst Reuters spot volumes fall 1.8% to their lowest levels of 2015. The Reuters-EBS gap continues to narrow (smallest gap of 2015), showing spot flows continuing to move from Reuters to EBS. And I would suspect the gains show continued attraction of EBSDirect, providing banks with tailored disclosed liquidity aggregation feeds for their pricing engines.

Notably, EBSDirect has just added two new regional bank liquidity contributors, (Standard Bank and Metallinvestbank), broadening the appeal of the EBSDirect feed outside of G10 to include EM currencies.

Commenting on the contributions from the respective banks are:

Sergey Romanchuk, Head of FX&MM at Metallinvestbank, commented: “As the first local Russian LP for EBS Direct we will be able to offer our counterparties enhanced liquidity in the ruble and other key currencies. Access to EBS Direct’s global distribution network will allow us to support our customers with customised liquidity at a time when reliable pricing and execution is more important than ever."

Tim Hutchinson, Head of eFX, Global Markets at Standard Bank, said: “As a leading market maker in the South African rand, it is vital for us to be present where our customers choose to transact, and EBS Direct is a significant avenue which is continuing to grow in popularity. Based in Johannesburg, our 24 hour trading desk is well positioned to provide customers with access to the best liquidity and our regional expertise.”

EBSDirect provides relationship (disclosed) pricing alongside its anonymous EBSMarkets pricing to banks to improve their liquidity provision capabilities.

ThomsonReuters recently responded to enhance the liquidity offering for Reuters RET, now renamed Reuters Electronic Trading (ET), by adding Reuters FXall liquidity to enhance the ability of banks to offer liquidity to their customers.

According to Phil Weisberg, managing director and global head of FX at Thomson Reuters, in a recent FXweek interview:

The addition of FXall liquidity will allow banks to access all of Thomson Reuters's liquidity, including anonymous and relationship-based pools. The integration of both types of liquidity into pricing and risk management will give banks better risk management tools and the ability to offer customers more competitive prices.

In terms of numbers, the volumes of the platforms are as follows:

Top tier Platforms

EBS $100.8bn/day in Jun, up +5.1% on May, and still up +30.9% compared to Jun 14 level of $77bn/day.

Reuters Spot: $108bn/day in Jun, down -1.8% on May, and down -6.5% compared to the Jun 14 level of $115bn/day.

Reuters Other Products: $267bn/day in Jun, up a decent 9.9%  on May, although down -2.1% compared to Jun 14 level of $273bn/day.

Reuters total: $375bn/day in Jun, up +6.2% on May, although still down -3.4% compared to Jun 14 level of $388bn/day.

As can be seen from the chart at the bottom of the post, the gap between Reuters and EBS continues to fall, as the chart drops away from the downward sloping resistance line at the points highlighted by black circles, showing continued strength of EBS at the expense of Reuters.

Three charts below show:

Top Chart: Reuters monthly volumes for all products (spot FX in blue)

Middle chart: The gap between Reuters and EBS spot FX (Reuters-EBS)

Bottom Chart: Monthly volumes of Reuters and EBS till Jun 2105

Bottom Chart: Monthly volumes of Reuters and EBS till Jun 2105