ICAP reported that FX volumes on its EBS platform averaged $123 billion daily in March, down 3% month-on-month from February and down 22% year-on-year from March 2011.
This is the fourth consecutive month for ICAP under $130 billion in FX volume, after not having a month below $140 billion dating back to 2010. ICAP’s results mirror those of competitor Thomson Reuters, also seeing slow volumes in March, indicating to us that overall industry volumes remain in their post-November-2011 slowdown.
We reported several weeks go that ICAP initiated a major management change in its FX business, with Gil Mandelzis promoted internally to head EBS. Mandelzis joined ICAP in 2007 after his VC-backed software startup Traiana was acquired by ICAP for $247 million. Traiana provides post-trade processing for FX transactions, and has been a consistent bright spot at ICAP.
For more on the global FX market see the LeapRate-Dow Jones Forex Industry Report.