EBS Trading Volumes Remain Flat in May, Materially Higher YoY

The trading volumes on the EBS electronic foreign Exchange Trading Platform remained more or less flat in May, declining about 1 percent to $95.9 billion daily when compared to the previous month.

The average daily volumes (ADV) remained almost a third higher than a year ago, demonstrating the robustness of ICAP’s EBS Business. Other similar platforms, such as BATS Global Markets owned Hotspot FX have barely registered any year-on-year growth in May.

The figures confirm that the foreign exchange market remains way more lucrative for trading than at the same time last year. A number of analysts have already considered a last minute Greek deal unlikely to materialize this time around, and Barclays research advocates that the U.S. dollar might not even need a Fed rate hike in order to retain its strength.

In a note to clients of the bank, the foreign exchange research team of the British bank stated, “Validation by the Fed helps, but it’s returns to capital that ultimately drive currencies; rates are just a (decreasingly) good proxy. “Missingflation” and demographics may dampen the signal content of interest rate differentials, increasing focus on actual underlying returns to capital, where the US rules.”

US treasuries trading remained bullish, rising 27 percent during the month to an ADV of $189.2 billion when compared to April. The figure is higher by 13 percent when compared to the same time last year.