5 -
Hong Kong participated for the first time in the 1989 survey. The 1995 survey is the third in which Hong Kong participated.
The survey covered all authorised institutions in Hong Kong, which included 178 licensed banks, 62 restricted licence banks and 136 deposit taking companies.
A total of 26 countries participate in the current survey, viz Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Many of the other participating countries will also release their results today. BIS would be prepared to publish preliminary global foreign exchange turnover data in October. In the previous two rounds, the survey collected only turnover data on the foreign exchange market, including spot deals, forward contracts, options and futures.
However, in view of the rapidly growing derivatives activities, BIS has expanded the current survey to cover a wider scope of derivatives activities.
Besides currency derivatives, derivatives on interest rates, equities and commodities are covered.
Many countries hope to release information from this part of the survey in November and full global results are scheduled for release by BIS in 1996.
Currency composition
The most commonly traded currency pairs were US Dollar against Japanese Yen (29% of daily net turnover) and US Dollar against Deutschemark (25%). The share of HK dollar against US dollar transactions ranked third at 16%. The pattern was in general similar to that in April 1992.
Type of transactions
Reflecting a growing sophistication in the foreign exchange market, spot turnover grew only moderately but forwards (including both outright forwards and foreign exchange swaps) registered a phenomenal growth, with net turnover almost double that of three years ago. The share of forwards out of the daily net turnover accordingly rose significantly to 61% in April 1995 from 47% in April 1992.