I have finally had time to sit down and read this latest missive from BIS. The FX market does seem to be undergoing a little bit of a shift as evidenced by the fall in volumes, the changing role for some currencies and the rise of the renminbi.
There are a few interesting take home points that are noted below.
- Daily FX trading turnover dropped from 5.4 trillion in April 2013 to $5.1 trillion in April 2016. The graphic below shows the steady rise of FX trading followed by the current tapering.
- Spot transactions dropped from $2.0 trillion in April 2013 to $1.7 trillion in April 2016.
- The US dollar remains the dominant currency being on one side of 88% of all currency transactions.
The EUR, YEN and AUD all lost market share.- The renminbi doubled its share to 4%.
- Trading in five centres made up 77% of all transactions.
Should the urge take you you can read the entire report here.
