Daily FX trading volumes drop 7% year-on-year in December – CLS

A picture illustration of U.S. dollar, Swiss Franc, British pound and Euro bank notes, taken in Warsaw January 26, 2011. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel/File Photo

LONDON, Jan 13 (Reuters) – Average daily foreign exchange trading volumes fell 7% in December versus the same month a year earlier, CLS said on Thursday, as declines in spot and swap activity outweighed growth in currency forwards.

CLS, a major settler of trades in FX markets, said in a statement that turnover droppped to $1.64 trillion a day, down from $1.76 trillion in 2020.

Currency market volatility, a major determinant of trading volumes, fell in December as investors grew confident the Omicron variant would not damage economic recoveries severely and risk assets such as stocks rallied to new record highs.

Reporting by Tommy Wilkes, editing by Karin Strohecker

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