ICAP reports growing automation of FX trades

A FX matching service launched by ICAP last year has seen strong demand and growing interest in automated trading, the interdealer broker has said.

A FX matching service launched by ICAP last year has seen strong demand and growing interest in automated trading, the interdealer broker has said.

ICAP launched the eFix Matching solution in May last year, looking to enable customers to execution currency fixes electronically via the EBS Market platform.

Average daily volume traded in April 2015 was 160% higher than in May 2014. The market has gone from virtually no automation at launch to seeing around one in four traded executed via is API.

David Casterton, CEO of global broking for ICAP, said: “We’re pleased with the development of eFix Matching, which is the first electronic and voice venture within the ICAP Group. Our voice brokers play a major role in building liquidity and momentum. Together with EBS we have successfully brought together our respective customers to execute on the platform which is at the forefront of Fix innovation.”

As well as seeing increased trading activity, the types of currency pairs traded have diversified. While EUR/USD dominated at launch, accounting for 76% of daily volume, it now makes up just 46%, while AUD/USB and GBP/USD have seen their share grow.

Recent months have also seen growing numbers of early order submission, which have risk pre-calculated, due to the platform’s first-in first-out matching policy.

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