The Foreign Exchange Committee (FXC), a multi-national cooperative conducting a semi-annual survey that includes FX data from leading dealers and banks in North American, today issued its 30th report which covers April 2019.
According to a New York Fed filing, average daily volume in total over-the-counter (OTC) foreign exchange instruments (including spot, outright forward, foreign exchange swap, and option transactions) was $810.9 billion in April 2019, down 18 percent from the ADV figure in the year before, which was reported at $993.5 billion. In addition, the average daily volume was also 19 percent lower than the $995.4 billion reported back in October 2018 survey.
The decline in the average daily volume in North America was broad-based and was reported across almost all currency pairs, instrument types, counterparty types, and Execution methods.
One of the primary culprits of the recent fall in April 2019 was attributed to a drop in spot turnover, which had lost nearly 27 percent since the survey of April 2018. This was also accompanied by a decrease in turnover across forwards and Swaps by a respective factor of -16.4 percent and -13.7 percent respectively from the previous year. The average daily turnover in OTC options, however, climbed by 18.7 percent in April 2019.
Euro, Yen, and Pound retain top positions
In terms of specific FX pairs across the spot market, EUR/USD turnover dropped -29 percent in the six months to April 2019, having yielded $71.1 billion per day compared to $100.4 billion in April 2018. USD/JPY was the next most commonly traded pair, totaling $43 billion, down -31 percent on a year-over-year basis from $68.2 billion.
Rounding out the top three trading pairs was the GBP/USD, which also saw a drop in volume by four percent from $30.0 billion in the last survey, coming in at $28.7 billion.
The Foreign Exchange Committee (FXC) surveys to provide market participants with developments in the North America FX market. In conducting the survey, the Federal Reserve of New York provides technical assistance in collecting and processing the data of respective respondents.
Similar surveys are also carried out in the UK, Singapore, Canada, and Australia.
