Multibank FX aggregation service FXSpotStream might have surprised some folks today when they – for the first time – announced the FX trading volumes supported on their system, as well as the size of those volumes.
First off, the data.
FXSpotStream reported that April volumes on its system averaged $18 billion (single count) daily, 2% above March levels and 41% more than last year April.
FXSpotStream’s best-ever month was this past February, at $21 billion ADV.
The reported volumes rank FXSpotStream as smaller than venues such as ICAP plc’s EBS or Thomson Reuters which do closer to $100 billion ADV, but certainly in line with mid-size electronic platforms such as BATS Hotspot at about $25 billion per day. It places FXSpotStream at about 2x the size of FastMatch, owned by FXCM Inc (NYSE:FXCM), Credit Suisse and BNY Mellon.
Alan Schwarz, FXSpotStream
FXSpotStream is a wholly owned subsidiary of LiquidityMatch LLC (which is ultimately a bank owned consortium), and provides the infrastructure that facilitates a multi-bank API and GUI to route trades from clients to Liquidity Providers. FXSpotStream provides liquidity from 12 leading global banks – BofA Merrill Lynch, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, BNP Paribas, Citi, Commerzbank AG, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Standard Chartered and UBS.
Alan F. Schwarz, FXSpotStream CEO stated:
As our business approaches its four and a half year anniversary we believe it’s a good time for us to share our volumes with the market. We are extremely pleased with how fast the business has grown and we share our success with the many clients, banks and technology partners that have supported us over the years. As the only bank owned FX venue in the industry, our streaming aggregation business model is unique and is leading the industry in offering a transparent, no fee service for price takers and no transaction fee for price makers.
FXSpotStream continues to go from strength-to-strength and is filling a clear need in the market. We started the streaming aggregation business in 2011 with just a spot FX API and 6 Liquidity Providers. In the last 4 plus years we have significantly expanded the streaming aggregation offering and now support trading in spot FX and spot precious metals, FX forwards and swaps and multiple order types, and we have doubled the number of Liquidity Providers to 12. We also launched a new HTML5 GUI last summer and opened a London office. In July we will be opening an office in Tokyo to further support our growing Asia business and will expand our sales and support staff in the region. Today we have clients in all of the major financial centers, and to support our expansion we recently upgraded and doubled the capacity of our infrastructure in each of our co-location sites in New York, London and Tokyo.
About FXSpotStream
FXSpotStream provides a multi-bank FX streaming aggregation and a matching service supporting trading in FX Spot, Forwards and Swaps and Spot Precious Metals. Banks connected to FXSpotStream’s streaming aggregations venue serve as Liquidity Providers to clients. FXSpotStream’s streaming aggregation service functions as a market utility, providing the infrastructure to facilitate multi-bank trades from clients to Liquidity Providers. Clients access a GUI or single API from co-location sites in New York, London and Tokyo and have the potential to communicate with all Liquidity Providing banks connected to the FXSpotStream. FXSpotStream’s streaming aggregation venue does not charge brokerage fees to clients or banks.