Forex ECN FastMatch is reporting that volumes in its system increased by 23% MoM from December, to average $17.0 billion ADV for the month of January.
January clearly started off on the right foot for FastMatch and other leading institutional FX platforms, as volatility in key currency pairs remained high throughout most of the month. The $17.0 billion ADV figure was 34% above FastMatch’s average monthly volume of $12.7 billion.
And, made January FastMatch’s second best ever month, just a hair behind November 2016’s US election driven $17.1 billion ADV result.
FastMatch is jointly owned by retail forex broker FXCM Inc (NASDAQ:FXCM) and commercial banks Credit Suisse Group AG (ADR) (NYSE:CS) and BNY Mellon Corp (NYSE:BK). FXCM has been active monetizing assets to pay down its high interest loan from Leucadia National Corp (NYSE:LUK) – most recently selling its DailyFX research and news site to IG Group Holdings plc (LON:IGG) for $40 million. We believe that FXCM’s stake in FastMatch may be next on the block.