OTC foreign exchange turnover in April 2025

1. BIS Triennial Central Bank Survey

The BIS Triennial Central Bank Survey is the most comprehensive source of information on the size and structure of global over-the-counter (OTC) markets in foreign exchange (FX) and interest rate derivatives (IRD). The Survey aims to increase the transparency of OTC markets, and help central banks and market participants to monitor global financial markets.

Activity in FX markets has been surveyed every three years since 1986, and in OTC IRD markets since 1995. The Triennial Survey is coordinated by the BIS under the auspices of the Markets Committee (for the FX part) and the Committee on the Global Financial System (for the IRD part). It has been supported through the Data Gaps Initiative endorsed by the G20.

This statistical release concerns the FX turnover part of the 2025 Triennial Survey that took place in April and involved central banks and other authorities in 52 jurisdictions.¹ They collected data from more than 1,100 banks and other dealers and reported national aggregates to the BIS for inclusion in global aggregates. Turnover data are reported by the sales desks of reporting dealers, regardless of where a trade is executed, and on an unconsolidated basis, ie including trades between related entities that are part of the same group.

The data are subject to revision. The final turnover data, as well as several articles that analyse them, will be released with the BIS Quarterly Review in December 2025. A separate survey on outstanding amounts as of June 2025 will be published in November 2025.

2. Turnover in foreign exchange markets

Turnover in OTC FX markets averaged $9.6 trillion per day in April 2025 (Graph 1.A and Table 1).³  This represents a 28% increase from the $7.5 trillion per day recorded in the 2022 Survey. The April 2025 Survey was conducted amidst elevated FX volatility and a surge in trading activity that followed trade policy announcements early in that month by major jurisdictions.⁴

Turnover by instrument

The share of spot and outright forwards increased relative to those of other FX instruments. At $3 trillion per day in April 2025, turnover in FX spot markets accounted for 31% of global turnover (all instruments), up from 28% in 2022 (Graph 1). Turnover in outright forwards in particular – used by market participants to lock in future exchange rates – was $1.8 trillion, or 19% of global FX turnover in April 2025, compared with 15% in 2022.

FX swaps remained the most traded instrument, with average daily turnover rising to $4 trillion in April 2025 – a 5% increase from $3.8 trillion in April 2022. Despite this growth, their share in global turnover declined to 42% in 2025 (from 51% in 2022), owing to faster growth in turnover of other FX instruments. Although this marks the lowest share since the 2010 survey, FX swaps continue to play a critical role in the market. They typically combine a spot transaction with an outright forward at a later date. Predominantly short-maturity instruments (up to seven days; Table 2), FX swaps are widely used to manage FX funding liquidity and hedge currency risk.

Average daily turnover of FX options more than doubled from 2022 to 2025, accounting for 7% of global turnover in 2025 (up from 4% in 2022). Options are mainly used to hedge currency risk or to speculate on currency movements.

Turnover of currency swaps remained stable at around 2%. Currency swaps are mainly used to manage longer-term funding needs across currencies and to hedge currency risk. Since they typically have longer maturities than FX swaps or outright forwards, their average daily turnover tends to be much lower.

Turnover by currency and currency pairs

The US dollar remained the dominant currency: it was on one side of 89.2% of all trades in April 2025, up from 88.4% in 2022 (Graph 2.A and Table 4). The euro share declined to 28.9%, down from 30.6% in 2022 and 32.3% in 2019. The Japanese yen’s share held steady at 16.8%, roughly unchanged since 2019.

The next three most traded currencies – sterling, the Chinese renminbi and the Swiss franc – registered more notable shifts. The renminbi (CNY) and the franc saw gains in market share. The renminbi continued its upward trajectory observed since 2013, reaching 8.5% of global turnover. The share of the franc increased to 6.4% in 2025, making it the sixth most traded currency, up from eighth place in 2022. By contrast, sterling’s share dropped sharply, to 10.2% in April 2025, falling below its average of 13% observed over the previous three surveys since 2016.

With the notable exception of the Hong Kong dollar, the next most traded currencies saw minor changes in market share. The Australian dollar, Canadian dollar and Singapore dollar maintained stable shares around 6%, 6% and 2%, respectively. The share of the Hong Kong dollar, however, increased from 2.6% in 2022 to 3.8% in 2025, back close to the 3.5% share reported in the 2019 survey.

The top 10 most traded currency pairs all involve the US dollar, reflecting its status as the world’s vehicle currency (Graph 2.B panel). Trading in the currency pairs USD/CNY, USD/CHF and USD/HKD rose materially by 59%, 60% and 95%, respectively (Table 5). Their share in global turnover increased to 8.1% (from 6.6%), 4.9% (from 3.9%) and 3.6% (from 2.4%), respectively.

Turnover by counterparty

Trading between reporting dealers (ie inter-dealer trading) averaged $4.4 trillion in April 2025, or 46% of total FX turnover. This was slightly lower than the 47% share in 2022, but higher than the shares recorded in the previous surveys from 2010 to 2019.

Dealers’ trading with “other financial institutions” accounted for 50% of average daily FX turnover in April 2025, up from 47% in 2022 (Graph 3).⁵ A further breakdown by instrument shows that these counterparties accounted for 55% of turnover in spot (up from 52% in 2022) and 62% of turnover in outright forwards (up from 57%) (Table 2). Higher turnover in spot and forwards with these counterparties reflected elevated trading activity amid heightened FX volatility following US tariff announcements in early April 2025. For example, the depreciation of the US dollar appears to have led many institutional investors and asset managers with dollar asset exposures to limit further FX losses on their portfolios by selling dollars forward. This ex post hedging activity contributed to the high turnover in outright forwards.

Within the “other financial institutions” customer group, trading with non-reporting banks (mainly smaller regional banks) remained dominant (Graph 3.C). Turnover with this subsector averaged $2.4 trillion per day (Table 3) or 24% of global turnover in 2025, up from 21% in 2022. Similarly, trading with institutional investors increased in relative terms for the first time since 2016; at $1.3 trillion per day in 2025, its share in global turnover rose to 13% from 11% in 2022. Trading with hedge funds and proprietary trading firms was also higher, at 8% of global turnover in 2025, up from 7% in 2022.

By contrast, the share of trading with non-financial customers extended its downward trend:⁶ it accounted for 5% of global turnover in 2025, down from 6% in 2022 and 7% in 2019.

Geographical distribution of turnover

FX trading continued to be concentrated in major financial centres. In April 2025, sales desks in four locations – the United Kingdom, the United States, Singapore and Hong Kong – intermediated three quarters of total FX trading (Table 6, “net-gross” basis).⁷

The relative shares of major financial centres remained largely stable, with Singapore as a notable exception. The United Kingdom retained its position as the world’s leading FX trading hub, followed by the United States in second place. The shares of these two jurisdictions were largely unchanged compared with three years ago, at approximately 38% and 19%, respectively. Singapore reported brisk growth in trading activity, pushing its share to 11.8% of the total (up from 9% in 2022). Hong Kong’s share remained steady at 7.0%.

The share of cross-border trading in global FX turnover was 63% in April 2025, inching up from 62% in 2022 (Table 2). Cross-border trading accounted for 68% in the inter-dealer segment and 61% in the turnover with “other financial institutions” (Table 3).

Market-facing vs non-market-facing trades

The 2022 Survey introduced new dimensions to better identify “market-facing trades”, ie deals with customers and other unrelated entities that contribute to price formation in the market. The 2025 Survey continues to break out “non-market-facing” trades, which consist of: (i) “back-to-back” trades (ie deals that automatically follow trades with customers to shift risk across sales desks); and (ii) compression trades (ie trades used by dealers to optimise their portfolios by replacing existing contracts with new ones to reduce notional amounts while keeping net exposures unchanged).⁸ In the 2022 and 2025 Surveys, these trades are separately reported as “of which” items (without breakdowns by counterparty sector or currency).

In total, non-market-facing trades amounted to $1.2 trillion, or 13% of the $9.6 trillion of global FX turnover in 2025 (Table 3). This is up slightly from 12% in 2022. Across instruments, these trades accounted for similar shares of turnover in the 2025 Survey: 13% in spot, 13% in FX swaps and 14% in outright forwards. The corresponding figures in the 2022 Survey were 8%, 14% and 12%, respectively.