August volatility brings record broking volumes at Icap

Date: Thursday, September 6, 2007
Author: Hedgeweek.com

Global interdealer broker Icap, which is active in the wholesale markets in interest rates, credit, energy, foreign exchange and equity derivatives, experienced record volumes for its electronic broking products in August against a backdrop of turbulent global markets.

Icap's electronic broking platforms EBS and BrokerTec traded a record of USD1,275bn on August 16, almost USD200bn more than the previous record of USD1,077bn, followed by USD1,218bn the following day. Average daily volumes on EBS and BrokerTec in the month of August reached USD945bn, an increase of 51 percent on August 2006.

Spot FX on EBS reached a record level of USD456bn on August 16, beating the previous record of USD311bn from July 27 by almost 50 percent and almost three times as high as the average daily volume in the first half of this year. It was followed by a volume of USD 411bn the following day as daily volumes on EBS during August averaged around USD240bn.

Electronically traded fixed-income products - US Treasuries, European repo and US repo - reached USD819bn on August 16, breaking the previous record of USD809bn. Average daily volume over the month was USD703bn, an increase of 42 percent compared with the previous August.

Icap has an average daily transaction volume in excess of USD1.5trn, more than 50 per cent of which is electronic.

'The record volumes in FX and fixed income electronic broking highlight Icap's position as a trusted liquidity source in these volatile markets,' says group chief executive Michael Spencer. 'Both the EBS and BrokerTec platforms have proven their value to customers with strong liquidity, tight spreads and robust performances in the face of highly volatile trading.'