Integral Survey Sees Cloud Computing on the Rise
Posted by Colin Lambert. Last updated: March 2, 2021
A survey of 94 heads of FX trading and senior FX managers by Integral finds that cloud computing is set to dominate FX technology by 2025.
The results find, Integral says, that 28% of respondents will operate their FX technology completely in the cloud within the next five years, compared to the current figure of 2%. An additional 41% will be using some combination of cloud and on-premise technology, compared to 24% at present, and 29% expect to use cloud in a more limited fashion.
The expected shift to cloud will be driven by lower cost of technology, ease of integration, automation, ability to customise, and accessibility for distributed workforces, respondents suggest.
Other findings were that 46% of participants expected multi-dealer platforms to see the biggest rise in FX trading in the next 12 months, followed closely by APIs at 33%, mobile trading at 17% and single dealer platforms at 2%. In the latest semi-annual FX committee surveys there was already evidence for this trend, with multi dealer platforms seeing their share increase from 10.8% to 12.6% in the UK and 35.4% to 39.2% in the US. At the same time single dealer venues saw their ratio of turnover decline to 19.6% in the UK (from 19.7%) and 7.2% in the US (8.8%).
Integral says these findings are “quite the turnaround” compared to the results of the FX turnover survey for April 2020, which saw single dealer platforms to be the most popular platform for electronic trading.
A reason for this could be that survey was taken in the immediate aftermath of the vol shock of March 2020 thanks to the global pandemic. Indeed COVID-19 was also part of the survey with 53% believing it had accelerated existing market infrastructure trends, 24% suggesting it caused temporary changes, 7% caused permanent change and 16% believing it caused no change.
“This past year has proven that the future of FX trading is highly dependent upon technology,” says Harpal Sandhu, CEO of Integral. “It is no surprise that in the next five years cloud computing is projected to feature in the workflow of almost everyone surveyed. Looking ahead, we expect that the increased use of cloud will help market participants of all shapes and sizes perform their FX functions on a daily basis cheaper and more efficiently, and that time to market, customisation abilities and remote accessibility will continue to be necessary requirements of a sophisticated workflow.”