EBS Volumes Rise Slightly in September – But Still Weak

Interdealer ICAP has released its electronic trading volumes for September. In its EBS, OTC FX platform, the firm registered average daily volumes of $81.2 billion. The figure was 3% above last month’s multi-year low, but 27% below the same period in 2012. The lack of a meaningful bounce in volumes, even as the summer months have ended, reveals that EBS continues to struggle as it is underperforming versus the competition. In addition to Thomson Reuters, FXall and the CME, which reported higher volumes than EBS in recent months, newer entrant Bloomberg, with its twin Tradebook and FXGO trading platforms are close to, if they haven’t already overtaken EBS in activity.

In overall ICAP volumes, the inter-dealer reported that total activity among its electronic trading platforms rose 7% from August to $713.5 billion. The largest gains were in the firm’s BrokerTec, US Treasury platform which continues to be experiencing a strong 2013, on overall increases in US government fixed income trading.