FXMarketSpace

From MarketsWiki

FXMarketSpace
Founded	Launched March 26, 2007
Headquarters	London
Key People	Mark Robson, CEO; Rick Sears, president/chief sales officer
Products	Cash forex trading with central counterparty clearing
Web site	http://www.fxmarketspace.com/

FXMarketSpace is the first centrally cleared OTC foreign exchange (FX) platform, with a unique twist. The global platform combines the central counterparty model and clearing function of CME Group and fully anonymous execution (features not present in the traditional over-the-counter forex market) with Reuters' global distribution network and straight-through processing capability.

1 History
2 Products Offered/Hours of Operation
3 Access through Reuters/CME Group
4 News
5 Also See
6 External Links
7 Resources
8 References

History

FXMarketSpace was formed in 2006 through a 50/50 joint venture between Reuters and CME to meet the increased growth in the global FX market and the need for central counterparty clearing and straight-through processing globally. Today FXMarketSpace has representative offices in major money-market centers -- London, New York, Chicago, Tokyo and Hong Kong.

Two decades ago, the majority of FX trading was conducted inter-bank. Since then the FX market has experienced rapid expansion. According to a 2007 Bank of International Settlements study, on any given day the FX market averages $3.2 trillion in trading volume. Thus, this market has evolved to include institutions, financial services companies, corporations and other non-financial entities. Currently, with the rise of foreign currency hedges and the increased popularity of FX as an asset class, trading by non-banks represent an increasing percentage of overall FX transactions.

Products Offered/Hours of Operation

FXMarketSpace offers spot trading in select G7 currencies which represent 78% of FX trading activity, including:

The euro
Japanese yen
British pound
Australian dollar
Swiss franc
Canadian dollar
Four cross currency pairs (Euro/Yen, Euro/Pound, Euro/Swiss Franc and Pound/Yen).

Continuous trading is between the hours of 3 p.m. (15:00) Central Time (Chicago) on Sunday through 4 p.m. (16:00) Central Time (Chicago) on Friday.

Access through Reuters/CME Group

FXMarketSpace can be accessed through a variety of different methods, including CME's iLink API, Reuters Dealing 3000 and 3000 Xtra desktops, Reuters standard transactions API, select ISVs and eFX portals of participating clearing member firms. Firms can also utilize existing connections with CME Group to facilitate their connection to FXMarketSpace, which in and of itself provides some additional efficiencies and reduced costs. Customers using FXMarketSpace from a Reuters terminal can use their existing Reuters infrastructure.

News

In September 2008, it was rumored in a news report that FX MarketSpace might be closing down for lack of interest, but it was not confirmed by Reuters or CME Group.^[1]

On December 7, 2007, FXMarketSpace announced that it was launching a profit-share program that will allocate 37.5-percent of its profit between its most active trading customers. The program, called "JumpBall," is open to both bank and non-bank participants and rewards the 16 most active traders on FXMarketSpace. Qualification for JumpBall begins on Jan. 15, 2008, and runs until Sept. 30, 2008. Customers with the highest average daily volume during the qualification period will have the right to receive a share of FXMarketSpace profits for up to four years. The four most active banks and four most active non-bank participants with the highest percentage of profit share receive the greatest share, and an additional eight customers (both banks and non-banks) are able to participate in a smaller profit share in successive one-year profit share pools.^[2]

In June 2007, FXMarketSpace and Traiana, a firm which provides global banks, broker/dealers, buy-side firms and e-trading platforms with solutions to automate post trade processing of financial transactions, announced the integration of their platforms, increasing automation in the processing of trades by prime brokers. Traiana Harmony provides post trade processing for electronic deal confirmations of trades dealt on FXMarketSpace to FX prime brokers in the format of their choice while leveraging existing connectivity into the Traiana Harmony Message Centre. Prime brokers who join the FXMarketSpace platform can use their existing processes and will not incur additional processing costs. ^[3]