Global FX Turnover Hits New Highs
Posted by Colin Lambert. Last updated: July 23, 2024
The latest semi-annual FX turnover surveys from the world’s FX committees indicates that FX turnover has hit yet another new peak, with five of the six committees to publish (Japan has still to do so), reporting record numbers – of note, Singapore has broken the $1 trillion-per-day threshold for the first time.
The scale of the growth is such that, even without the Japanese data, which is likely to be above $400 billion per day, total average daily volume is up 8.9% above turnover in both April and October 2023. It is also 3.1% above the previous peak in April 2022.
The UK continues to be the biggest FX centre, with the UK FX Joint Standing Committee survey reporting daily turnover of $3.351 trillion. This is 7.5% higher that April 2023, and also up 2.4% on the previous peak in April 2022. The US has also jumped to a new high at $1.165 trillion per day, this is up 26.9% from the previous year and up 6.4% on the previous high, set in October 2014.
Perhaps the big story from the latest surveys – and there could be further good news from Japan given all the interest in USD/JPY this year – is Singapore breaching the trillion-dollar threshold for the first time. At $1.085 trillion per day, Singapore has seen a nearly doubling of turnover in the last five years, with the latest survey coming in almost 34% above turnover from April 2023. The previous peak for Singapore was $908.7 billion in April 2022.
Hong Kong also hit a new peak at $852.2 billion per day, this is up 31.7% year-on-year, as well as 30% higher than the previous high-water mark. The same was the case for Canada at $198.8 billion per day, which is up 33.3% from April 2023 and up 12.4% from the previous high, set in the last survey in October 2023.
While it saw an increase in activity, Australia was the only centre to not to hit a new high, turnover being $160.4 billion per day, up 5.3% year-on-year, but below levels seen in surveys prior to 2014.
Drivers
With a few exceptions, growth was seen across most products. Spot FX volumes across the surveys were up 18.5% year-on-year at $1.939 trillion, while outrights (including NDFs where reported) also rose, but not universally, by 6.3% to $1.007 trillion. FX swaps continue to be the dominant product, especially in Asia, with overall volume hitting $3.301 trillion per day in April 2024, up 16.4% from the previous year.
Finally there was good news for those in the FX options business, with turnover across the six surveys hitting $427.4 billion per day, a 49.9% increase on April 2023.