CME Group, the derivatives marketplace, announced its foreign exchange (FX) futures reached an all-time single-day volume record of 3.26 million contracts (equivalent to $314B notional) on June 12.
The previous record of 3.15 million contracts ($296B notional) was “set on March 8, 2023.”
In addition, FX Link, CME Group’s anonymous, “all-to-all spot-futures spread trading tool reached a single-day volume record of 113,662 contracts ($10.5B notional ) on June 12, which represents a 37% increase over the previous record of 82,900 contracts ($7.2B notional), set on June 16, 2022.”
Year-to-date, FX Link volumes are up over 52% versus the same period in 2023.
Paul Houston, Global Head of FX Products, CME Group said:
“Achieving two all-time volume records on June 12, is a significant milestone for CME Group FX products and is testament to the continued growth that we have seen in client segments, currency pairs and overall liquidity over many months. FX Link will play a crucial role in our new CME FX Spot+ marketplace as we prepare for client testing in the second half of 2024. The improved liquidity, tighter spreads and increasing client participation builds an even stronger foundation for delivering value to market participants in the future.”
Shuo Wu, Global Head of Forward eTrading, Deutsche Bank said:
“We are pleased to see the continued growth in CME Group FX futures and FX Link as complementary sources of liquidity to the OTC market and as mechanisms to help automate the trading of products like FX swaps. Deutsche Bank is a major liquidity provider to this marketplace as part of our market-leading portfolio of electronic trading products.”
Richard Condon, Head of FX, Commodity and EM Institutional Sales, North America, BNP Paribas said:
“Record levels of listed FX volume are a clear indication of the rapidly evolving interplay of OTC and cleared FX futures liquidity. In particular, the use case of Exchange for Related Position (EFRP) amongst institutional clients continues to resonate across hedge funds and asset managers alike. Participants point toward the benefit of pairing the familiarity, breadth and relationship pricing of bilateral OTC execution strategies with the power of a centrally cleared instrument.”
FX Link reportedly provides “a transparent central limit order book on CME Globex for trading spreads between OTC FX spot and CME Group FX futures, seamlessly connecting the two markets.”
Today, there are nine major FX prime brokers live, “with credit lines in place with major bank FX house entities, along with integrated post-trade messaging provided by Traiana, RTN and IHS Markit.”
FX Link spreads are listed with and “subject to the rules of CME.”
As the world’s derivatives marketplace, CME Group enables clients “to trade futures, options, cash and OTC markets, optimize portfolios, and analyze data – empowering market participants worldwide to efficiently manage risk and capture opportunities.”
CME Group exchanges reportedly offer “the widest range of global benchmark products across all major asset classes based on interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, energy, agricultural products and metals.”
The company offers futures and options “on futures trading through the CME Globex platform, fixed income trading via BrokerTec and foreign exchange trading on the EBS platform.”
In addition, it operates one of the world’s central counterparty clearing providers, CME Clearing.