Employment on FX trading desks shrinks 30% since 2012
An interesting report in Reuters asks if the glory days of FX trading are over.
The FX market’s status as the world’s largest, built up over decades of rampant globalization, deregulation and growth in financial services, is unlikely to be relinquished any time soon. But the glory days, according to Reuters, may be over.
Overall trading volumes and employment levels at the biggest banks trading currencies are shrinking. The culprits? Tighter bank regulation, the fading emerging markets boom and a general slowdown in world growth and trade take their toll.
Reuters cites financial industry analytics data firm Coalition as reporting that the Top 10 FX banks alone operating in Europe employed 332 people on their G10 European FX trading desks last year. That is down 30% from the 475 employed in 2012. And the vast majority of those frontline positions are in London.