Global foreign exchange turnover rises 41% to $175 trillion

Details of the continuing strong growth of FX markets were recently released by Euromoney Magazine in its annual FX poll, which found Deutsche Bank, a leading global investment bank, to be the number one in FX for the fourth year running, with its share of global volumes climbing to 21.7% and a 37.18% share of Middle Eastern volumes.

The growth of FX markets over the past year has been driven by many of the world's largest banks focusing on FX as a market for continued growth whilst other asset classes declined in the wake of the credit crisis.

Deutsche Bank's FX expertise has been accessible to retail customers since 2006 through its online FX trading platform, dbFX.com, the first online retail trading platform from a leading global bank.

The service has rapidly grown to become one of the world's leading retail FX services and in October 2007 it launched its Arabic version, dbfxarabic.com.

Betsy Waters, Global Sales Manager, dbFX, said, "The latest set of Euromoney data on global FX markets highlights the benefits of this asset class to retail investors. FX offers investors the means to diversify their portfolios, as FX is proven to have low correlation to bond and equity market returns. The daily turnover of the world's currency markets is close to $2trillion a day, compared to $500bn for the US government bond market and $70bn for the New York Stock Exchange. This means investors are able to trade in an asset class with a large liquid market. FX markets are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, giving investors constant and consistent access to the market. FX is also an easy and cost-effective way of investing with access to the market through online platforms such as dbFX.

"Deutsche Bank's number one position in FX* is hugely beneficial to our retail FX customers. By trading through dbFX, our customers are dealing with the largest liquidity provider, Deutsche Bank, meaning they have access to competitive spreads. Our retail customers are able to make informed FX strategies, as they have direct access to Deutsche Bank's award winning FX research. They also have the safety and security of knowing that they are clients of one of the world's leading banks.

"The growth in FX volumes for the Middle East over the past year confirms that the region is one of our fastest growing and most sophisticated FX markets. More and more investors from the region are discovering the benefits of FX as an investment asset through dbfx.com and dbfxarabic.com," concluded Waters.