CLS Bank Reports Lowed FX Volumes for October

FX Settlement firm, CLS Bank, has reported lower trading volumes and transactions for October versus September s results. For October, CLS settled an average of $4.66 trillion/day in volume compared to $5.19 trillion in September. Total trades for the month were registered at 1,005,312, which was 9.9% lower than the previous month. October’s results were also below the Q3 average of $4.72 trillion in volume. (Of note, CLS Settlement data calculates figures from both parties of a trade, as each side reports separately within the CLS network. Therefore, to compute the value of initiated trades, the CLS volumes need to be divided by two. )

The drop in the CLS data matches the drop that we saw taking place in the CME’s FX unit and could bode negatively for other institutional FX trading venues which are expected to release their October figures soon.