Section Two – e-FX Initiatives 2026
Posted by toast. Last updated: October 19, 2026
Last year we offered these awards only for non-bank players, noting that while we can judge single dealer platforms in a relatively straightforward manner, we needed somewhere to recognise innovative ideas from the vendor world. That is still the case, but there is also the reality that, if we are not to descend into the “making sure everyone wins a prize” abyss, we also need to be able to recognise innovative ideas coming out of the banking world that maybe did not tip that platform into one of our headline awards.
So this year, the e-FX Initiatives are open to all players, however we have tried to stick to the original premise of products and services that solve genuine problems that have not been solved before. This rules out, sadly, some great initiatives where banks have, for example, provided much easier access to a developing market, but it also ensures that we don’t fall into the “every child wins a prize” box.
Our e-FX Initiative Awards are very product-specific, without the basis to compare apples with apples we feel a better approach is to highlight interesting initiatives that are likely, but not always guaranteed, to move the industry forward. This approach helps narrow the field down considerably, thanks also to the fact we are only looking at the last 12 months.
Here, therefore, are this year’s awards for firms that we think are, in their own different ways, both forward thinking and providing choice for FX market participants.
CME Group – FX Tape+
Five years ago, Euronext FX pulled the plug on its FX Tape after several years in which it failed to gain traction amongst FX traders. It may well have been a question of timing – were markets less automated in the wake of the pandemic? – but the fact remains, there is still demand for such a product.
Late last year, CME brought the product back to the table with the launch of FX Tape+, so why do we like this when the last attempt failed? Quite simply, the source of the data. Previous efforts at a Tape have included last look liquidity, so what amounts to indicative pricing – there is no value in a Tape offering trade and price data that cannot be traded upon in certain circumstances. With CME’s modus operandi very much being about firm pricing, FX Tape+ offers what could be termed a “truer” insight into the market than that available before.
Of course, the FX market is linked, and repeats through liquidity recycling, but nearly everyone recognises that CME’s FX futures, EBS Market, and LSEG Spot Matching do not deal in last look and therefore represent the best raw data for institutions who want to avoid the noise of a large amount of small value trades.
This makes CME, with effectively four order books in futures, EBS Market, FX Spot+ and FX Link, the ideal place to launch such a product. There are still some, this publication’s current editor among them, who are wary of giving away too much information in the current market landscape, arguing that full transparency can work against hedgers in particular, but that does not mean that a notable segment of the market will find great value in a Tape. It will be interesting to see how the project progresses as automation, and information security concerns, continue to climb.
Deutsche Bank – HausFX on Aladdin
It is clear that we like the concept and design of HausFX – we gave it our Product of the Year award last year, so it is always nice to follow up an award given for potential, with one for an actual deployment.
By deploying HausFX on BlackRock’s Aladdin, Deutsche Bank has opened a distribution channel to one of the largest user groups in the investor space, it has also provided the perfect explanation as to why the product was built. Many years ago, the editor of this publication was starting to question the scale of spending on UBS’ Neo given the relatively limited user group, only to be met with the onboarding of that bank’s Wealth Management clients. That was a game changer for the platform and this feels similar.
The deployment addresses a long-standing operational challenge for institutional investors: efficiently handling FX linked to cross-border securities activity. As settlement cycles shorten and regulatory complexity increases, the need for automated operational workflows is critical. HausFX has embedded logic to streamline access across developed, emerging and restricted market currencies. This allows clients to maintain control of their full trade lifecycle and minimise the drag on returns from operational FX workflows.
For clients in this sphere, several of whom have historically treated FX as a nuisance, this could be a game-changer because it brings not only better execution outcomes, but also a seamless – and importantly tech burden-free – way to automate a process that even now often remains too manual.
By connecting with Aladdin, Deutsche is providing a solution to a long-running problem in the asset management community, the lack of choice when it comes to a truly efficient way to hedge their FX exposures, especially in emerging or restricted markets (where they are probably investing more than ever). Solutions do exist to help this, but what has happened here is Deutsche is, in one swoop, providing the solution to more than 250 major firms.
New Change FX – Bank365
And so to the annual question – is this going to be the year in which FX swaps markets truly automate? At 20 years and counting, like a stopped clock, one year those predicting it will be right, but we’re probably not holding our breath. That said, the key to automating any market further has to be data, and over the past year there have been advances.
One of them was the launch of Bank365 by New Change FX, which, in partnership with a group of banks, provides more granular data – on a daily basis from ‘today’ to the one-year tenor. This provides a solution to the FX swaps market, especially in an era when regulatory demands are growing around execution quality, that overcomes the problem of different players having different curves when it comes to broken dates.
NCFX Bank365 delivers continuous, independently-validated forward pricing across all good business days across G10, emerging markets, frontier currencies, and NDFs. This helps price discovery, construction as well as the aforementioned execution analysis.
One of the challenges in automating FX swaps, as it is in options, is the spread risk that emerges from hedging to tenor “buckets” rather than exact. That will not change, given liquidity remains in the major buckets, but by providing a trusted price for every working date across the calendar, New Change is allowing risk managers and traders to better understand where those risks may be, and what it may be costing them.
This should lead to more targeted hedging in the market, which in turn provides the opportunity for capital efficient plays post-trade, which in turn also can help build liquidity across the curve. When we have that, we have the final piece of the puzzle that delivers a more automated FX swaps market.
State Street – Liquidity Insights
State Street’s Liquidity Insights is a new dashboard offering real-time information in addition to what could be termed the standard range of analytical tools. What we really liked, however, is how, in addition to the volume, spread and depth data, it offers analysis on bespoke, multi-currency if required, baskets across a range of time horizons.
The heat map offers fill rate per minute and reinforces the excellent look and feel to the platform, where finding and analysing information is easy. “What-if” analysis is supported by intuitive graphics, making it easy to ascertain current conditions compared to selected periods. An “at a glance” function completes the package.
Ultimately, this launch fills a pressing gap for a giant in the real money space and given how some important clients in that arena like to have more of a say on their FX execution, it is delivering an important service from a familiar source. It is hard to offer something different in the execution analytics space, but allied to a strong presence in a key segment of the market, State Street has delivered a dashboard that just has a modern, intuitive and user-friendly feel.
OptAxe – Live Trading
As was the case last year, we have allocated one of our awards to a new venture that started printing trades over the 12 months, and OptAxe, into the bargain, is offering an interesting model that could be very attractive to traders.
Rather than be described as a multi-dealer venue, OptAxe is probably more accurately a multi-issuer venue, as dealers list axes they have in the FX options market to targeted participants. This provides a degree of information security for the dealers providing the axes, that should give them some comfort as the market increasing looks at the impact of information leakage.
This is very much about information security, because, in FX options, trades are very bespoke, and can be sizeable, especially outside of the G3/5. “Watermarking” of liquidity has become very popular in spot FX as LPs try to preserve at least some of their IP, but a great deal of the leakage has been down to the delivering of axes. Without wishing to get into pun territory, it has been very much a blunt instrument where the dealer has little control over where the axe is shown. This has changed on OptAxe, where they have full control, which should, in turn, see them more comfortable putting the interest into the market.
Feedback on the venture is that it is gaining momentum and seeing new highs in “axed” liquidity, and dealers spoken to have given the working model the thumbs up. This, therefore, means that OptAxe has fulfilled the concept of these awards – it has seen a problem in the market, and not only delivered a solution to help, but also done so in a fashion that shifts the market structure just a little bit.
OptAxe is likely to succeed, however, not because it changes the market landscape, but because it enhances it. Bilateral relationships are still important, and this model does little or nothing to threaten that. The sense is that the FX options market structure evolution is still in its infancy, as it matures, the OptAxe model is likely to be a key part of that process.
