Electronic trading volumes of foreign exchange doubled last year to $8 trillion (€6.7 trillion) despite a refusal from almost half the institutions in the industry to go online, according to a new survey by US consultancy Greenwich Associates.

Global institutions that traded foreign exchange electronically grew to almost 40% last year from 32% in 2002. Of those trading online 43% of their overall volume was executed electronically, 11% up on last year.