CLS Sees Decline in October FX Trading Activity

​CLS, a foreign exchange settlement provider, has published its report of FX trading activity in October 2020, showing a decline compared with the figures of the prior year and month.

The company reported an average daily traded volume of forward of $116 billion in October, as compared to $108 brillion in September and $94 brillion in October 2019.

On the other hand, the swaps volumes reached $1.20 trillion in October 2020, down from $1.25 trillion in September 2020, a fall of four percent month-over-month. Further, the figure was lower by six percent year-over-year from $1.276 trillion a year ago.

As for the spot FX volume, the group has reported the figure at $389 billion in October 2020, down nine percent from $427 September. The figure was also lower six percent over a yearly basis from the $415 billion set in the previous year.

With all this, the total average daily traded volume submitted to CLS was $1.707 trillion in October 2020, down 4.4 percent month-over-month from $1.785 trillion the prior month. Across a yearly timetable, the figure also reflected a similar drop relative to October 2019's figures.

“After the surge in volume in September, daily traded volumes in October were subdued at USD1.71 trillion (-4.4%). Both FX spot and FX swap volumes declined compared to the previous month by 8.9% and 3.8%, respectively. The spot volume decline was notable for EURUSD, where there was a 13% decline in volumes compared to September. Overall, Forward volumes increased by 7.4% compared to the previous month and by 23.5% compared to October 2019,” said CLS's Head of Information Services, Masami Johnstone.