CLS, a New York-based FX settlements and grouping services provider, posted a 9.2% year-on-year growth in their average daily trade forex volumes ($2.09 trillion vs. $1.92 trillion prev. Jan) in Jan 2024.
CLS Sees 9.2% Increase in January Traded Volumes
There was a large spike, which was supported by the substantial increase in all of the major FX instruments. It was most pronounced in terms of FX forwards, whose average daily volumes rocketed by 47.9% and reached $204 billion. FX swaps increased by 5.9% to $1.39 trillion, FX spot having shown a 6.9% increase to $498 billion.
CLS’s Chief Growth Officer’s statement
Lisa Danino-Lewis, CLS’s Chief Growth Officer, said, “We went up by 9.2% to 2.09 trillion worth of traded volumes from January 2023 to January 2024.”
The increase in volumes reflects the resumption of the global economy and more F/O transactions.
Danino-Lewis further added, “Similarly to that period, we also saw the overall volume across all the instruments went up. FX forwards volume, which marked a 47.9% rise, and FX spot and FX swap volumes, which increased by 6.9% and 5.9%, respectively.”
CLS is able to facilitate FX trade settlements for 18 major currencies, with over $6 trillion in payments being settled daily. The recent volume spike represents a positive impulse for CLS and worldwide money markets in case time passes by the end of 2024.
At the beginning of the year, Eurex has seen a strong performance as well, with volumes growing by 6% compared to the same period a year ago. However, amongst reports from firms on spot FX trading, there were different trends in Europe and Asia. The volumes rose in Europe, but there were drops in Asia.
CLS Enlists BNY Mellon, ING to Enhance FX Transaction Handling
Back in mid-January, The Finance Line reported that BNY Mellon and ING teamed up with CLS, a financial market infrastructure firm. The banking titans have come to CLSNet, which is a service that clears the bilateral netting of payments for more than 120 currencies.
With $41.1 trillion worth of assets, BNY Mellon, known as the global leader in custodian banking, and ING, the largest bank in the Netherlands with assets exceeding €951 billion, is now part of the multiplier in the CLSNet network—currently, this service eight domestic and foreign banks represent ESCO.