London’s renminbi trading up 17 percent, beating out pound-euro
(30 January 2019 – United Kingdom) Trading volumes for the renminbi surpassed those for the pound-euro for the first time in 2018, according to the Bank of England’s semi-annual report.
In October, trading volumes in the renminbi against the US dollar were $73 billion a day while the euro traded just over $66 billion against the pound over the same time period.
Renminbi trading volumes were up 17 percent between April and October, helping cement London’s push to be a major trading hub for the Chinese currency.
Overall, London retained its position as the world’s largest currency dealing hub with $2.6 trillion a day moving through the city, highlighting a roughly 10 percent growth in volumes between April and October.
The volume of sterling traded against the dollar in October was down 8 per cent from April 2018, according to the BoE’s semi-annual report published on Tuesday. Trading volumes of the pound versus the euro, meanwhile, dropped 7 per cent from April.
Derivatives markets saw mixed results. Activity in options contracts was 15 per cent higher than in the previous survey at $155bn a day, a rise that offset the largest absolute fall in foreign-exchange swap turnover since October 2008.