Electronic FX trading in the Australian market had already migrated substantially to e-platforms. Covid 19 has boosted the trend, writes Richard Willsher.
By the end of 2019, between 85 and 92% of FX trading by volume by Australia’s largest financial institutions was conducted on-line. An annual survey of the market by Peter Lee Associates interviewed 77 financial institutions including 44 funds, 21 non-price making banks and several insurance companies and calculated that total volume of transactions amounted to USD2.2 trillion. Of this, 50% passed through FX-Connect, 30% through FX-All, 5% at Bloomberg and 2% on 360T. The remaining 13% was shared by Refinitiv Dealing and bank proprietary platforms. Peter Lee’s Managing Director Cameron Peter notes, “The only products not generally traded through platforms are options and emerging markets currencies, which are both becoming an increasing proportion of the total volume executed by financial institutions.” Ahead of their 2020 research, Peter’s view is that Covid will not drive a significant change in e-platform usage because it is already deeply integrated into institutional FX…continued
