Barclays FX Completes Successful First Commissions for Cancer Event

Barclays says the recent Commissions for Cancer initiative by its FX team led to the largest ever donation by a single team at the bank. Although the bank does not reveal the size of the donation, which was raised by donating all commissions earned from trades executed using the bank’s Gator algo suite, it says that daily FX algo trading volumes were up 85% from March 1-4, the period covering the event.

The initiative was in support of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) and was pioneered by Ajay Kataria, head of BARX FX sales, Americas, and Ben Peto, director, institutional FX sales, who brought together global team members across electronic and voice sales to encourage client participation. The bank says their efforts resulted in 57% daily growth in the number of clients trading that week.

“We were impressed by how many clients participated,” says Peto. “LLS is such a compelling cause, especially when you learn about the research initiatives and the support they provide to those battling cancer.”

LLS is the largest non-profit organisation dedicated to curing blood cancer and has invested more than $1.5 billion into ground-breaking research, leading to breakthroughs in treatments that are improving and saving the lives of patients. “This event was the first-of-its-kind for LLS and highlighted how creative thinking can yield exponential results,” says Jaclyn Gilbride, LLS’s campaign development director. “We hope that Barclays continues to pave the way for others.”