FX market transparency: CLS launches two new FX datasets

CLS has launched two new datasets to capture outstanding forward and swap positions in the FX market, in addition to making enhancements to its existing suite of alternative FX data products.

The new FX outright forward outstanding and FX swap outstanding datasets enable users to improve their analysis of both short- and longer-term FX market trends to provide insight into market dynamics.

Outstanding forward and swap position reports will be introduced on a daily basis, helping all market participants benefit from increased visibility into cash flow and directional positioning which will add market color and support pre-and post-trade analysis.

Keith Tippell, Global Head of Product, CLS, said: “We have launched FX Outstanding in response to growing demand from our client base for accessible and digestible FX market insights.”

CLS’s position at the center of the FX ecosystem enables us to capture a uniquely large and diverse amount of data, applying robust data science techniques to create FX alternative datasets that promote market transparency. As the largest single source of FX-executed data available to the market, CLS’s datasets derive from over 1 billion trades dating back to 2002.

To further support client needs and provide greater insight into FX market dynamics, CLS has also made the following enhancements to its existing datasets:

Added a dynamic delivery window for the FX Spot Flow dataset, aggregated every five minutes to meet growing demand for more frequent data delivery;

Introduced a daily FX Forward Flow dataset to provide a complete end-of-day picture, complementing the existing Flow product suite; and

Incorporated new currency pairs in some datasets to meet demand from regional banks, particularly across Asia Pacific. The new currency pairs are AUD/CAD, AUD/CHF, CHF/JPY, EUR/NZD, EUR/SGD, NOK/SEK and NZD/JPY.

Foreign exchange settlement provider, CLS Group reported its operational metrics for July 2021, which dropped on a yearly basis, and in line with peers in the industry, executed trade volumes were lower compared with the figures of the prior month.

The average daily traded volume submitted to CLS was $1.66 trillion in July 2021, down -13 percent month-over-month from $1.90 trillion the prior month. Across a yearly timetable, the figure also reflected a drop of 5 percent relative to July 2020’s figures.

Following a period of wide-scale volatility and increased trading activity during the initial phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, average daily traded volumes in CLSSettlement, a payment-versus-payment settlement service, have now stabilized at lower volumes as compared to the same period last year.

CLS reported swaps volumes at $1.19 trillion in July 2021, down from $1.37 trillion in June 2021, a fall of 17 percent month-over-month. Further, the figure was lower by a factor of 4 percent year-over-year from $1.24 trillion a year ago.

In terms of CLS’ spot FX volume, the group has reported the figure at $389 billion in July 2021, down 9 percent from $428 billion in June. Additionally, the figure was lower 7.4 percent over a yearly basis from the $420 billion set in the previous year.

The weak performance was again pronounced across CLS forwards business, which yielded a figure of $81 billion last month, down 21 percent over a monthly basis from $102 billion in June, and also dropped by 3.6 percent year-over-year from $84 billion in July 2020.

In July 2021, CLS completed Convergence, a significant phase of its multi-year technology investment program, to deliver its advanced post-trade technology platform for global financial market infrastructures (FMIs).

CLS has migrated CLSSettlement onto its Unified Services Platform (USP), thereby optimizing the underlying technology platform supporting its settlement services.

The upgrade allows greater control of change delivery for its settlement solutions and provides a single platform to support CLSSettlement, CLSClearedFX, and CLSNow.