CME, EBS, See Y-o-Y FX Volume Increase

In line with those FX platforms to report at the start of the month, CME Group saw a decline in activity on its venues from March, however both CME futures and options, and EBS, saw a healthy year-on-year increase.

EBS average daily volume was $66.3 billion in April, an 11.3% decline from March, but sustaining a decent set of data from February 2022.Year-on-year, EBS volumes were up 7.6%. Jeff Ward, global head of EBS, observes, “While we are past the initial volatility spike driven by the Russia-Ukraine war, the broader macro/geopolitical environment is producing more balanced activity levels across G3, CNH and NDFs. In G3, while EURUSD activity is down in April versus March, this is offset by an increase in USDJPY activity which is up 23% YoY and remains on par with March 2022 levels.

“In CNH we have recently seen some very large trading days, near record levels, driven by the evolving COVID lockdown situation in China, following lower volatility levels in recent months,” he adds.

CME’s FX futures and options meanwhile, dropped back from March – the latter being a roll month so characterised by higher activity – with 811,000 contracts traded daily. The Full FX estimates this to represent a notional value of $79.5 billion per day, a 21.6% increase from April 2021.

Paul Houston, global head of FX at CME Group, says, “Central bank monetary policy tightening led by the US Federal Reserve, continued inflationary pressures and ongoing geopolitical tensions contributed towards increased trading activity in CME Group FX futures and options during April 2022 as clients relied on our listed products for price discovery and risk transfer.”

Open interest in CME Listed FX products is up +29.7% year-to-date as of April 30 versus same period 2021, while volumes in Blocks and EFRPs of CME listed FX futures and options contracts are up over 292% as of April 30 looking at volumes year-to-date 2022 versus same period 2021.

EUR futures activity was up +15.1%, JPY up 39.5% and GBP up +34.7%, while in options EUR was up +49%, JPY up +182.7%, GBP up +50.3% and CAD up +88.7%.