CLS FX Volumes Up in May; 360T, Refinitiv, FX Swaps Mixed
Posted by Colin Lambert. Last updated: June 15, 2022
The FX platform volume data published thus far for May offers a mixed picture of activity levels and this has been highlighted by CLS data, which indicates activity was largely steady from the previous month, while being up year-on-year.
Overall average daily volume (ADV) submitted to CLS in May was $1.866 trillion, a fraction higher than the $1.859 trillion in April, and up 3.7% year-on-year. Spot ADV at CLS was $478 billion, up from $475 billion in April and up 10.9% year-on-year. Earlier this month the first group of platforms to report volume data indicated stronger year-on-year returns, but were broadly in line with CLS on a month-by-month basis.
Outright forward activity on CLS was $127 billion per day, up 10.4% from April and up a significant 44.3% year-on-year, perhaps reflecting the generally higher risk around both exchange and interest rates for hedgers, while FX swaps ADV was slightly lower at $1.261 trillion, This compares to $1.269 trillion in April and is down 1.4% year-on-year.
The FX swaps data was also reflected in data published by 360T and Refinitiv. The latter, which published all FX volume data last week, saw non-spot ADV drop to $336 billion in May from $363 billion in April, an 8% decline. Year-on-year Refinitiv non-spot volumes were slightly down, by 1.2%.
Spot activity at Refinitiv reflected the broader market, coming in at $97 billion per day in May, down 4.9% from April, but up 18.3% year-on-year.
Deutsche Börse’s 360T, meanwhile followed up a strong spot report earlier this month by reporting overall FX ADV of EUR 111.7 billion in May, down 7.9% from April – which was a new high for the platform – but up an impressive 31.4% year-on-year. Using a flat exchange rate for the year to extract the spot volumes, The Full FX estimates non-spot volumes to have been EUR 88.3 billion, down 10.7% from April, but up 33% year-on-year.
Integral remains the only regular reporter of volume data not to release May data at time of publication.