CME, EBS Hit Multi-Year Highs for FX Turnover

Following the positive news from the first group of platforms to report data, CME Group has also unveiled a strong March FX volumes report with both the futures and options and OTC product suites hitting their highest since September 2022 – a month in which the Bank of Japan intervened in USD/JPY.

CME’s FX futures and options saw average daily volume (ADV) of around 1.3 million contracts for notional ADV of $119 billion. As to be expected, this is up over a third on February, which is a non-roll month, but it is also up 11.7% year-on-year. The Merc hit a new record for average daily Open Interest (OI) at 3.44 million contracts, or $326 billion, as well as for contracts per day for the quarter at 1.1 million. It also registered new quarterly peaks in CAD, NZD, BRL and ZAR.

CME says it hit a new record high for open positioning on FX options on 6 March and a record day for JPY options on 17 March, although it does not provide notional values. Year-on-year options’ notional SDV was up 56%.

In notional terms, CME’s EUR ADV was $47 billion, which is up 13% year-on-year, it addition it saw CAD ADV of $10 billion, which is up 17% over the same period. NZD at $2.8 billion was a monthly record. In options, EUR ADV was up 171%, CAD by 43% and JPY by 62% – again hard numbers are not provided.

Ahead of the launch of Spot+, there was also a strong report for FX Link, an integral part of the new platform CME is planning. Notional ADV on the venue was $4.5 billion per day, up 25% from February and more notably up an impressive 77.2% year-on-year.

Meanwhile, EBS came within just $300 million of matching its post-pandemic high in ADV terms, the platform reporting ADV of $76.3 billion in spot and NDFs. CME says activity was largely driven by G3 currencies, EUR/USD continued to be volatile in the month. ADV is up 8.4% on February and up 38.4% year-on-year, only FXSpotStream outperformed the latter of the early group of reporters.

The increased volatility is registering in CME’s G5 CVOL Index, which averaged 9.17 in March. Although this is below January’s 9.4, it is up from February’s 8.74 and is a long way over 2024’s average of 7.3. It is also the highest since 2022, when, as noted, the Bank of Japan started intervening in USD/JPY.