CME, EBS, See FX Volume Decline

FX volumes declined at both EBS and parent CME Group in August, and although this is line on a month-on-month basis with previous platforms to report data, in contrast both are down year-on-year.

CME’s FX futures and options saw 768,000 contracts traded daily in August, which The Full FX estimates represent notional value of $71.5 billion per day. This is down 14.6% on July and is also down 11.3% year-on-year. Illustrating the generally quiet nature of markets, this is also the quietest month for CME FX since October 2021.

This is reinforced by data on the CME Group Volatility Index (CVOL), which shows volatility continued to trend lower. The combined G5 CVOL Index averaged 7.5% in August, this is down 30% from the same month in 2022.

CME FX Link handled average daily volumes of $1.77 billion, down 38.5% from July, but up 9.3% year-on-year, slightly below the 2023 average of $2 billion. Year-to-date, CME says Open Interest in FX futures averages 2.1 million contracts, up 5.7% compared to the same period in 2022. There was good year-on-year growth in MXN (+12%), BRL (+36%) ZAR (+34%) and CNH (+53%).

CNH was a good news story for EBS in August also, with the platform saying average daily volumes (ADV) rose 15% from July, but overall activity was lower. Overall ADV on EBS was $52.2 billion, the lowest since December 2021. This is a 9.5% month-on-month decline and is also 11.2% lower than August 2022.