Thomson Reuters forex volumes up for first time in five months

Volumes at rival platform EBS also recovered slightly over the past two months, up to $77 billion daily in June. But it has been a lean year for both of the foreign exchange market's main venues.

Thomson Reuters said daily trade on Matching fell in annual terms in June to $94 billion from $147 billion a year earlier. Volumes on EBS a year ago were $128.8 billion.

The fall is the result of low volatility - and hence lower volumes - that has marked major currency markets for much of the past 12 months. It also comes as other venues threaten the traditional dominance of EBS and Matching.

The slight recovery in June came as global settlement system CLS reported average daily volumes in the market overall surged back to $5.46 trillion, up $500 billion on a month earlier, suggesting a bounce-back for the world's largest and most liquid market.

Much of that overall number is accounted for by the double-counting of currency pairs, as well as derivatives and forwards trading and internalised transactions at banks.

Volumes at FXAll were up from $127 billion in May and $123 billion in June a year ago. ■