Overview of Global Forex Markets - An Exclusive by Enhanced Investment Management Limited

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The foreign exchange (FX) market is the world's largest and most liquid financial market, shaping capital flows, trade, and financial stability. Below is a research-backed snapshot of where FX stands today: its size, structure, and key players, followed by the structural shifts likely to define its next chapter.

The market today: size, instruments, and who trades what

Average daily turnover in the over-the-counter (OTC) FX market reached $7.5 trillion in April 2022, according to the BIS Triennial Survey. Growth since 2019 was modest by historical standards at just 14%. Composition continues to tilt away from spot toward derivatives: FX swaps dominated with $3.8 trillion daily (51% of turnover), while spot accounted for $2.1 trillion (28%). Outright forwards made up 15%, with options and currency swaps together around 6%. (Source: BIS Triennial 2022 [https://www.bis.org/statistics/rpfx22_fx.htm]).

Real-time plumbing data corroborates the market's heft. CLS-the industry's largest PvP settlement utility and the single biggest source of executed FX data-handles more than $2 trillion in daily submitted trades. For example, CLS reported $2.32 trillion in average daily submitted FX trades in July 2025. While this is not the entire FX market, CLS activity is a reliable proxy for institutional trading flows. (Source: CLS monthly activity).

Currency hierarchy: still dollar-centric, but edges move slowly

On the trading side, the U.S. dollar remains the linchpin, on one side of ~88% of all FX transactions. The euro participates in ~31%, yen ~17%, and sterling ~13%. The renminbi (RMB) rose to ~7%, now 5th most traded by turnover. (Source: BIS Triennial 2022 summary).

When it comes to official reserves, the dollar's share has drifted down over two decades but remains dominant. IMF COFER data show that in early 2025, the dollar accounted for 57.7% of disclosed reserves, the euro 20.1%, the yen 5.8%, sterling 4.7%, and the renminbi 2.1%. (Source: IMF COFER note, Jul 2025 ; Reuters summary of Q4 2024).

For cross-border payments, SWIFT's RMB Tracker shows that in June 2025 the RMB accounted for 2.88% of global payment value, ranking 6th worldwide. Even as RMB use has grown, the small share underscores that headlines about "de-dollarization" continue to outpace the data. (Source: SWIFT RMB Tracker, July/Aug 2025 [https://www.swift.com/sites/default/files/files/rmb-tracker_july-2025.pdf]).

Geography: London still #1, but Asia is gaining

FX trading remains concentrated in a handful of hubs. In April 2022, five locations: the UK (38%), the US (19%), Singapore (9%), Hong Kong SAR (7%), and Japan (4%), accounted for 78% of global turnover. London retained its position as the world's largest FX center, though its share slipped from 43% in 2019, while Singapore gained ground as Asia's leading hub. (Source: BIS Triennial 2022-Geography).

Microstructure: electronification, algos, and single-dealer platforms

Electronification keeps rising across spot and derivatives: the e-FX ratio is ~60% globally (2022) and >60% in spot, where algorithmic execution is now standard. Banks' single-dealer platforms (SDPs) and multi-dealer venues (MDPs) anchor this shift, even as their growth fragments liquidity and reduces the share of primary inter-dealer venues to



This release was published on openPR.