Triennial Central Bank Survey of Foreign Exchange and Derivatives Market Activity in April 2004 - Preliminary global results

Press release  | 
28 September 2004

In April this year, 52 central banks and monetary authorities participated in the Triennial Central Bank Survey of Foreign Exchange and Derivatives Market Activity. They collected data on turnover in traditional foreign exchange markets – those for spot transactions, outright forwards and foreign exchange swaps – and in over-the-counter (OTC) currency and interest rate derivatives. This was the sixth global survey since April 1989 of foreign exchange market activity and the fourth survey since April 1995 additionally covering OTC derivatives market activity. Today participating central banks and monetary authorities are publishing their national survey results and the BIS is releasing preliminary global statistics from the survey. The two global headline figures from the April 2004 survey are the following:

  • Average daily global turnover in traditional foreign exchange markets rose to $1.9 trillion in April 2004, up by 57% at current exchange rates and by 36% at constant exchange rates as compared to April 2001
  • Average daily global turnover in the OTC derivatives markets increased to $1.2 trillion in April 2004, a rise of 112% at current exchange rates and of 77% at constant exchange rates as compared to April 2001

More detailed results on developments in the foreign exchange and OTC derivatives markets and comprehensive explanatory notes describing the coverage of and terms used to present the statistics are included in the separate statistical release of the data. Statistical tables follow the explanatory notes.

Questions arising from these statistics can be directed to:

Gabriele Galati on foreign exchange market turnover (tel: +41 61 280 8923; e-mail: gabriele.galati@bis.org ), Fabio Fornari on OTC derivatives market turnover (tel: +41 61 280 8406; e-mail: fabio.fornari@bis.org ) and Rainer Widera on the statistical data (tel: +41 61 280 8425; e-mail: rainer.widera@bis.org ).

The BIS plans to publish, in November 2004, the preliminary global results of the second part of the triennial survey covering open contracts outstanding in OTC derivatives markets at end-June 2004. A more detailed analysis of the results for the traditional foreign exchange markets will be published in the December 2004 BIS Quarterly Review. The final global results of both parts of the 2004 triennial survey will be released in spring 2005.