January 2013 is quickly becoming the next revelation of August 2011. Surprising Volatility during the summer month led many brokers and trading venues to achieve record volumes for that month. Similarly, January’s overall rise in volatility in the Euro and Yen is leading to solid trading figures to be reported.
After yesterday’s FX figures from the CME showed substantial growth, ICAP has posted volumes figures for its EBS unit, and they were very strong. For the month, the OTC FX ECN reported $141.3 billion in average daily volume (ADV) which was a 22% and 54% increase year over year and month over month respectively. According to ICAP representatives, the volume surge was due to “increases in volatility in EBS’s core currency pairs.” In regards to the new EBS Direct platform, ICAP answered that there were trades beginning to take place on the system but volumes were negligible in relation to the reported totals. For EBS, the volume spike reverses a sharp drop in month over month trading that took place in December.
London, 5 February 2013 - ICAP (IAP.L), the world’s leading interdealer broker and provider of post trade risk and information services, announces today that average daily volumes on the BrokerTec and EBS platforms for January 2013 were $767.9bn, 17% higher than in January 2012. Average daily volumes in fixed income products on the BrokerTec platform were $626.6bn, an increase of 16% year-on-year. Average daily US Treasury volumes on BrokerTec were US$144.9bn, an increase of 27% year-on-year. Overall repo volumes were $481.7bn in January up 14% year-on-year, reflecting a 7% increase in US repo and a 20% increase in European repo. Average daily spot FX volumes on the EBS platform were $141.3bn, up 22% year-on-year and 54% month-on-month.
