ICAP saw revenues declines in all product groups, and across all geographies.

Interdealer broker ICAP reported today its 2013 year end results (ICAP has a March 31 fiscal year end), and they weren’t pretty. ICAP saw revenue declines across all of its business groups, including FX trading, and across all geographies. Overall, revenues were down 12%, and profits were down 70%, from last year.

At EBS, ICAP’s Forex ECN subsidiary, revenues were down 11% to £137 million ($211 million). This should not be surprising to our readers, as we had reported that some months in late 2012 were the slowest for EBS volumes since 2005.

ICAP management termed the results as “repositioning the business for future growth”. At EBS, that includes the long-anticipated launch of EBS Direct. We reported back in November that EBS was going to go head-to-head with FXall in non-anonymous ‘relationship’ trading. It took about 6 months to actually launch, but EBS reported just yesterday that EBS Direct transacted its initial trades. Relationship, disclosed (non-anonymous) trading services are more appropriate for corporate customers and asset managers, who are typically looking for specific solutions to specific currency and timing issues. The anonymous ECN solution is more of a clearing solution for larger institutional players, including retail Forex brokers, which have a near-constant flow of forex trading.

To see the complete ICAP 2013 results announcemen click here (pdf).

For more on the global FX market see the LeapRate-Dow Jones Forex Industry Report.