Reforms to forex fix working for now

Ian Rogers

Steps by banks and foreign exchange dealers to adapt to a new regime for the daily foreign exchange fix are "reasonable", RBA assistant governor Guy Debelle told an industry panel on Friday.

The so-called London 4pm fix is the primary foreign exchange benchmarking process.

Debelle said most banks were now charging for a risk transfer involved by standing in the market during the fixing window.

The Foreign Exchange Benchmarking Group, a global committee co-led by Debelle, recently widened the fixing window to five minutes from one minute. The industry must also bring new data sources on pricing into the fixing process.

These reforms are settling in. "We've had a few months and one quarter end. So far all that seems to be going all right," Debelle said.

The shift to the wider window was attracting a similar order flow, Debelle said.

Additional feeds on actual settlement rates are also becoming available.
Debelle made it clear he wanted to see more data feeds, saying "hopefully we'll see that shortly."

Forex liquidity is getting priced and maybe proving its worth.
"The fix is far and away the largest volume window during the day," he said.

Debelle spoke by teleconference to a Panel Discussion held by the Forex Network in London.