Total number of traders rises by one-third, retail banks businesses expand swiftly
Russian newspaper Vedomosti has put out an article providing data from a report on the retail forex industry by the Center for Economic Analysis of Russian non-governmental news agency Interfax. According to the article in 2013 there was a total of 400 000 Russian clients that used FX brokerage services and the average monthly volumes totaled $440 billion. That is a rise by one third in client numbers while trading volumes have doubled.
The substantial rise has been attributed to the growing popularity of leveraged trading amongst Russian traders. The average client deposit amounted to $1200, as total deposits grew to $500 million. The report outlines that the top three companies on the Russian market remain the same – Alpari, Forex Club and Teletrade. The “troika” has acquired 65% of total client numbers and 69% of the total traded volume.
Alpari Russia maintains its leadership position with 117 400 clients and $133.6 billion in monthly volumes, Forex Club trails in second with 79 400 clients and $89.2 billion and Teletrade rounds up the top three with 65 300 clients and $76.3 billion.
Foreign banks like Barclays could ask for some advice from Russian retail banks who have marked a very successful year and have reached 5th and 6th places in trading volumes this year. Russian Alfa Bank’s Alfa Forex retail brokerage service has increased monthly turnover fivefold to $20.2 billion, while VTB Bank’s VTB 24 volumes went up eightfold to $18.5 billion.
To be fair, the success of retail banks is attributed to the general trust of the population in banking institutions, not something that can be said about banks in developed countries which have come under a series of FX markets manipulation investigations. The environment in which Russian banks operate has mandated them to be amongst the few institutions that the general population can actually trust.
According to Forex Club’s managing director Ilya Volkov, the numbers cited in Interfax’s research seem to be matching, however he reiterates that such calculations can be quite difficult to muster. He proceeds to express his hopes that authorities proceed with the regulatory process that has gained shape last year.
For a link to the full article (in Russian) visit the Vedomosti newspaper’s website.
For more on the global Forex industry see the LeapRate-Dow Jones Forex Industry Report.