Foreign exchange has been one of the asset classes most easily adapted to electronic trading and spot forex was one of the earliest to move from telephone to screen. A quarter of the world’s corporate and financial institutions are now trading FX products online, with volumes still growing rapidly, according to Greenwich Associates, the US research company.

The demise last year of Atriax, the multi-bank FX portal, added to this growth in forcing greater consolidation with the founding banks joining both the remaining rival portals FXall and Currenex. And with Atriax gone, many of the corporates and fund managers still sitting on the fence began trading FX electronically.