Triennial Central Bank Survey of Foreign Exchange and Derivatives Market Activity

March 2005

Every three years, the BIS coordinates a global central bank survey of foreign exchange and derivatives market activity on behalf of the Markets Committee and the Committee on the Global Financial System. The objective of the survey is to provide comprehensive and internationally consistent information on turnover and amounts of contracts outstanding in these markets. The exercise also serves as a benchmark for the semiannual OTC derivatives market statistics, which are limited to banks and dealers in the most important financial centres.

The first three surveys were limited to the foreign exchange markets (1989, 1992, 1995). Subsequently both the foreign exchange and the derivatives markets have been surveyed (1998, 2001, 2004). For the survey, each participating central bank collects data from the banks and dealers in its jurisdiction and calculates aggregate national data. These are provided to the BIS, which compiles global aggregates. The number of participating countries has increased over time.

The 2004 survey

In April 2004, 52 central banks and monetary authorities collected daily data on turnover in traditional foreign exchange markets (those for spot, outright forwards and swaps) and in the OTC currency and interest rate derivatives markets. Preliminary results on turnover were published in September 2004, and an analysis of the results for the traditional foreign exchange markets was included in the December 2004 issue of the BIS Quarterly Review . The 2004 survey also covered data on amounts outstanding of OTC foreign exchange, interest rate, equity, commodity and credit derivatives at the end of June 2004. The full report on the Triennial Central Bank Survey was published by the BIS in March 2005.

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