ForexClear Hits New Records

Increased FX volumes in August were to the benefit of LCH ForexClear, which has reported new highs for volumes across three categories.

Although most trading platforms reported long-term highs in spot volumes (none matching March 2020), volume reports from non-spot venues were more mixed with NDF volumes rising, but FX swaps activity drifting from July’s level. The busy nature of NDF markets is reflected in the ForexClear data, with the clearinghouse reporting record notional NDF cleared in August of $2.9 trillion and a record $106 billion of client NDF notional cleared.

While the client-cleared notional is up 58% year-on-year, the monthly aggregate notional is up 28%, which is underneath the volume gains on the 24 Exchange and Cboe FX SEF venues, which rose 112% and 35% respectively.

Elsewhere, ForexClear also says it breached the half a trillion dollars threshold for the first time in its FX options clearing business, hitting $501 billion. This is 112% higher than August 2023, but is actually only 3.7% higher than July, which was itself a new high watermark. This actually marks the third successive month in which ForexClear has established a new record for FX options clearing volumes.