EBS Trading Volumes Stall in February with Uptrend Snapped

Trading volumes on ICAP’s electronic foreign Exchange (FX) platform EBS took a slight step backwards during February 2016, ultimately negating some of last month’s upbeat performance, according to an ICAP statement.

In particular, EBS’ FX volumes totaled $102.6 billion daily, representing a decline of less than -1.0% MoM from $103.8 billion in January 2016. This performance overall snaps EBS’ momentum, which just last month was firmly in the driver's seat, starting off the new year with surging volumes that allayed a weak Q4 for the platform.

Over a yearly timeframe however, EBS’s February 2016 figure of $102.6 billion is higher by a healthy margin, to the tune of 9.0% YoY from $94.1 billion in February 2015. The general pullback or failure to summit January 2016’s volumes has been a trend shared amongst many other institutional venues, which by and large saw a massive uptick in activity to start off the 2016 calendar year.

Ahead of a very important Nonfarm Payrolls release this week, the Fed will once again take center stage in 2016, with speculation already starting of another rate change from the central bank. ICAP’s US Treasury activity was on the move in February 2016, climbing to $208.0 billion, which is up by 2.5% MoM from $202.9 billion in January 2016. In terms of a yearly figure, this also justifies a more pronounced ascension of 14.0% from $181.9 billion in February 2015.