The Financial Futures Association of Japan (FFAJ) released its quarterly report of member activity today. Despite there only being a minute increase in its membership ranks, the FFAJ reported substantial increases in on-Exchange and over-the-counter (OTC) futures trading volumes amongst its members.

The FFAJ is a self-regulatory body established in 1989 to govern the Japanese futures market. Today it has 144 members - one more than it did at the end of last quarter.

In its last quarter, the FFAJ reported that its members had traded a total of 14,401,003 on-exchange contracts. This increased by nearly 32 percent to 18,985,290 at the end of the most recent quarter. This growth was driven in part by increases in domestic contracts but also because of a 43 percent increase in overseas futures contracts trading.

Domestic OTC futures contracts also increased in volume. The FFAJ’s members finished the last quarter trading a total of 9,275,548 OTC futures contracts. In this quarter that number increased to 11,717,172, representing an approximately 26 percent increase.

Growth, growth and more growth

Growth in the on-exchange market was driven in part by increases in the volume of interest rates contracts traded. In the domestic market, interest rate futures trading volumes grew by approximately 35 percent quarter-on-quarter.

The overseas market grew even more. At the end of last quarter, the FFAJ reported that its members had traded 5,063,060 overseas futures contracts - a number that increased to 7,369,933 this quarter, representing a nearly 46 percent increase.

In the FX markets, trading in on-exchange futures contracts expanded by 23 percent. Similar growth took place in the OTC FX markets. The FFAJ reported that its members had increased their OTC FX futures trading volumes by just over 26 percent in comparison to last quarter.