CME, EBS Volumes Lower in May

As was the case with the first group of platforms to report results, CME’s FX futures and options and the EBS spot OTC platform both saw activity drop in May, but while EBS held up year-on-year, futures activity dropped.

CME says it handled 896,000 contracts for a notion value of $75 billion in May, this is a 7.4% drop from April, which is largely in line with the other platforms to report; and is down 7.1% year-on-year. In contrast, other platforms had seen a year-on-year increase in spot activity. As was the case with the other platforms, CME’s FX futures and options activity was the lowest since August 2023.

Activity on CME’s FX Link also declined from April, but was still at its second highest level since September 2022. The service handled $3.4 billion per day, an 11% drop from April, but up an impressive 86.8% year-on-year.

After a strong start to the month, thanks to it handling over $42.5 billion in USD/JPY on 1 May as the Bank of Japan intervened for a second time, EBS also saw a drift lower in activity and reports average daily volume of $53.5 billion for the month. This is down 12.6% from April, but is fractionally higher, by 0.2%, year-on-year.

CME says EBS’ e-Fix service had its second busiest day ever at the month-end on 31 May, handling $24 billion in notional volume, just short of its current high-water mark from January 2022 at $25.3 billion.

The CME Group Volatility Index (CVOL) shows that the combined G5 CVOL index averaged 6.4 in May 2024, down 17% from May 2023 and down 22% from full-year 2023.