Feature
Consultants fear mis-selling as forex brokers discover new options
Foreign exchange brokers – which execute spot and forward currency trades with smaller businesses – are now offering options-based structures to clients in the UK. Consultants worry about the potential for mis-selling as the trades they are seeing are…
FX Focus - The regulation blues
Senior bankers have often derided the Basel Committee’s intraday liquidity measure as an ineffective and burdensome piece of regulatory overkill. Nevertheless, they will be expected to implement it from January 2015. Readiness isn’t perfect, and banks…
FX Focus - The magic world of cash management
Several of the largest banks have merged treasury and FX desk services to help clients dispense with costly local currency accounts. Corporate treasurers have often viewed this as some form of alchemy, but the significant savings promised by banks seem…
To fund or not to fund?
Low-volatility, low-yielding currencies may favour carry trade, but there are no high-yielding alternatives to buy
Trade surveillance comes with a hefty price tag
Costs subject to rate and volume of transactions, and number of locations
FX Focus - Banks fear Sef arbitrageurs
Some banks are scared to make prices on platforms offering both order book and request-for-quote trading, claiming users may be able to game them by using the two approaches in conjunction, with the result that dealers stop being 24-7 liquidity providers…
FX Focus - Sef volumes still struggling
Sef volumes are struggling to get off the ground as the industry waits for trading options and NDFs via a Sef to become mandatory. Can smaller Sefs survive this barren patch? By Michael Watt
FX Focus - Is Sef equivalency still solvable?
Negotiations for an equivalency system to allow European platforms to offer Sef-like liquidity to US persons fell apart in mid-May. Participants blame CFTC intransigence and warn of permanent fragmentation of the market. Can a solution still be found?…
Market participants lose out as renminbi volatility increases
The renminbi’s depreciation in early 2014 caused a scramble among FX users, and there may be more volatility on the way
NDF liquidity in doubt as clearing approaches
Central clearing has been a long time coming for the non-deliverable forwards market and participants worry its eventual arrival may damage liquidity. By Robert Mackenzie Smith
Tarf trouble in Taiwan: Sliding renminbi threatens heavy losses
Derivatives linked to the US dollar-renminbi exchange rate have been successful during the Chinese currency’s four-year rise. But now it is sliding, corporate users are looking at heavy losses
The squeeze on spot FX
Market-makers battle compressed margins in spot currency trading
FX Focus - Currency managers see brighter days ahead for FX markets
Currency managers are attracting more interest from clients as differentials grow between developed-world economies, but patience may still be required in the wait for higher returns
FX Focus - EM currency markets face fragmented 2014
Emerging markets were rattled by the Federal Reserve’s talk of tapering its quantitative easing programme in 2013. Will 2014 see more of the same? Or will emerging market currencies dance to a different tune?
Currency managers report pick-up in investor interest
Buy-side firms are starting to see some opportunities following a decoupling of central bank policy that has in turn sparked client interest in FX markets
Fixing scandal could become biggest crisis FX market has faced
Apart from senior traders, the Bank of England has become the first central bank to take action in connection with the global regulatory probe
Known unknowns: preparing for Sef-traded FX options
Robert Gray of Dion Global comments on recent regulatory developments
A brief guide to employment law for FX market participants
Suspensions, dismissals and redundancies- what does the law say?
FX Week Europe: Industry outlook for 2014
Senior market participants, including Paul Chappell from C-View, Will Patrick from CME Group and David Mercer from LMAX Exchange, tackle the key trends of 2013, and their expectations for 2014
FX market participants express concern and confusion over Sef trading
Trading on swap execution facilities in the US was introduced in a cloud of confusion and uncertainty. The market seems to have recovered from the initial shock, but there are concerns that Europe’s take on Sef trading will do longer-lasting damage. By…
Systematic FX traders search for solutions after tough year
Some say systematic trading’s reliance on macro events and its slaveish dependence upon automation produces inconsistency, but is discretionary trading any better? Maybe a combination of both could be the answer. Michael Watt reports
FX Week Forum: Citi tops Best Banks survey
Joel Clark interviews Anil Prasad, Citi's global head of foreign exchange and local markets, after Citi was voted top in FX Week's annual market survey
Citi investment in FX pays off as it regains top position
After four years in second or third place, Citi has returned to first place in this year's Best Banks survey as a result of its focus and investment in foreign exchange
ANZ navigates Aussie dollar depreciation
Australian bank retains the award for best bank for the Australian dollar following the currency's steady depreciation this year