BIS retail-driven FX turnover rises to $241.99 billion a day in April 2025
BIS reporting dealers recorded retail-driven FX turnover of $241.99 billion a day in April 2025, compared with $192.41 billion in April 2022. Options showed the most pronounced expansion among the reported instruments.
Retail-driven foreign exchange turnover reached USD 241.99 billion per day in April 2025, compared with USD 192.41 billion in April 2022, according to the Bank for International Settlements. The increase was broad across the reported instruments, but options stood out as the clearest change in product mix. These are global net-net figures, adjusted for local and cross-border inter-dealer double counting.
Options turnover rose to USD 30.62 billion per day from USD 7.44 billion in the previous survey. That put options above outright forwards in April 2025, reversing their ordering in April 2022. Outright forwards also increased, reaching USD 21.43 billion per day from USD 19.58 billion. The comparison shows that the expansion was not simply a larger version of the earlier instrument mix: options occupied a more prominent place in reporting dealers’ retail-driven activity.
Spot remained the largest component, at USD 109.15 billion per day, against USD 93.89 billion three years earlier. FX swaps followed at USD 80.40 billion, up from USD 71.17 billion. Currency swaps increased slightly and remained the smallest reported category. Together, these observations point to continued prominence for spot and FX swaps alongside the sharper expansion in options, rather than a wholesale displacement of the leading instruments.
A dealer-visible subset, not the entire retail market
The BIS category covers reporting dealers’ transactions with wholesale financial intermediaries catering to retail investors and direct transactions with individuals. It is an “of which” subset of dealers’ OTC FX turnover; the instrument figures are components, not additional volume. The observations measure average daily turnover during April in each survey year, not annual totals or outstanding positions.
The market-structure signal is therefore a broader mix of dealer-visible retail-driven transactions, with options gaining prominence. Higher turnover alone does not establish improved liquidity, more retail participants or greater broker profitability. Nor does the options increase identify the purpose of those trades. The evidence supports a change in transaction activity and composition within this reporting scope, rather than a conclusion about all retail-broker business worldwide.
Source: Bank for International Settlements, https://data.bis.org/topics/DER/BIS,WS_DER_OTC_TOV,1.0/A.U.A.B.5J.W.5J.A.TO1.TO1.A.A.3.C
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