Total volumes of spot foreign exchange traded on Electronic Broking Services (EBS) reached $52.9 billion in April 2023, the CME Group disclosed on Friday. EBS is the American derivatives exchange operator’s wholesale electronic trading platform for forex trading with market-making banks.

FX Link Grows, Spot FX Slumps across Regions

Finance Magnates reports that trading activities in spot FX among institutional investors weakened last month across regions, as data from Chicago-based Cboe FX, Deutsche Börse's 360T, New Jersey-based FXSpotStream and Japan's Click 365, show. Russia is not left out as spot FX trading on the Moscow Exchange, Russia’s largest exchange group, tumbled 10% month-over-month (MoM) to RUB 7.6 trillion ($96 billion). The decline came after major trading venues posted stronger output earlier in March.

On the contrary, the average daily volume (ADV) of FX Link, CME’s spot FX basis spreads, grew 32% in April 2023 versus the same period last year. However, the derivatives exchange operator did not disclose the value of the volume. In March, FX Link ADV jumped 34% year-over-year.

“In general, April volatilities in G3 pairs and CNH were all at or near 12-month low points during April, which not only impacts market volumes as a whole but can have a heightened impact on inter-bank centric-platforms and central limit order book volumes,” explained Jeff Ward, the Global Head of EBS at CME.

According to Ward, in April, the CME saw continued adoption of EBS Direct Forwards, its platform for optimal execution and management of FX forward risk. During the past month, the average daily volume on the platform shot up 61% year-over-year.

Meanwhile, Finance Magnates earlier reported that “flight to futures” jetted CME Group’s revenue to $1.4 billion during Q1 2023, which is its second-highest quarterly revenue. The jump came as global market participants sought to manage risks across asset classes during the period, noted Terry Duffy, CME Group’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.

In the latest report, the CME noted that trading in FX futures and options in April grew 5% year-to-date (YTD) compared to the same period in 2022. On top of that, it noted that YTD open interest on FX futures rose 5% versus the same period in 2022.

CME Sees Second-Highest April ADV on Record

Meanwhile, at the end of April, the CME recorded an ADV of 19.8 million contracts, which is its second-highest April ADV ever. The growth is built on strong ADV increases in options, commodities and cryptocurrencies.

Earlier, the CME hit its second-highest March ADV with daily average volume growing 24% to reach 30.3 million contracts. Additionally, the exchange’s first quarter 2023 ADV increased 4% to 26.9 million contracts, representing the second-highest quarterly volume ever.

The monthly and quarterly growth was pushed by increases in ADV across most of the CME Group's products and offerings including interest rates, options, equity index and digital asset derivatives.