CLS FX Volumes Down in May

As forecasted by the earlier reporting from trading platforms, the volume of FX settlements handled by CLS fell in May from April, but remained up year-on-year.

The service says it handled $2.123 trillion per day in May, down 6.2% from April, but up 6.9% from May 2023. Within this, all product sets declined from April, FX spot by 11.6% to $464 billion per day – very much in line with the declines reported by the platforms – although activity was 6.4% higher on a year-on-year basis. Outright forward volumes continued to drift lower after hitting new peaks either side of the turn of the year, CLS says it handled $163 billion per day in May, down 5.3% from April, but up 4.5% from May 2022.

The largest product for CLS, FX swaps, was also down, the service handled $1.396 trillion per day in May, down from April, by 4.3%, but largely in line with activity levels seen in January and February of this year. FX swaps volumes were 7.3% higher year-on-year – again reflecting data from those platforms to report non-spot volumes.