More Positive FX Volume Data Published

CLS Group says it handled $1.98 trillion per day in FX instructions during March, a 1.8% increase on February, but down 9.9% year-on-year from the record highs seen in March 2020.

Volume was up across all FX products from the previous month, by 1.7% in spot, 2.6% in outright forwards and 1.8% in FX swaps. Year-on-year, spot and outright forwards are down, by 31.7% and 9.3% respectively, however FX swaps activity was up 1.4%.

Compared to the FX platforms to report data across FX products, CLS’ performance is broadly in line. Refinitiv reported an increase in volume across FX products of 2.3% from February and a year-on-year decline of 13.3%, while the other venues to report all products, not just spot, saw similar moves with FXSpotStream saw a 10.3% month-on-month rise but a 12.2% decline year-on-year, while Integral’s ADV was 6.3% up from February and down 3.6% year-on-year.

Deutsche Boerse has also reported its final FX turnover data for March, this is across all FX products, not spot. The exchange group’s 360T platform had ADV of EUR 96.7 billion in March, a fraction short of the second highest month on record and a 7.8% increase from February and down 11.8% year-on-year. The bulk of the increase was in non-spot products, earlier this month, 360T reports a $200 million per day increase in spot activity from February.