EBS Direct Announces Rulebook Changes to Help Industry Adopt FX Global Code

EBS, a leading provider of electronic trading platforms and technology services for the FX markets, today announced an update to its liquidity provider’s eligibility criteria for EBS Direct, its quote-based marketplace, to help accelerate the industry’s transition to full compliance with the Global FX Code.

Building on its long-term commitment to the Code, effective April 1, EBS will disable liquidity providers from all EBS Direct liquidity pools by default if they have not subscribed to the Code. As a relationship-based platform, clients will be able to maintain relationships with non-compliant liquidity providers if they wish, but they must do so well in advance. Also starting April 1, EBS Direct will update its dealing policy by lowering the “last seen” threshold from 200 milliseconds to 30 milliseconds.

“As the market-leading platform for spot and forward FX liquidity, the changes we are announcing today for EBS Direct will accelerate the industry’s transition to compliance with the FX Global Code,” it said in a statement. Jeff Ward, Global Head of EBS. “Our new trading rules will create minimum standards for our marketplace, and our new transparency tools will help grow the ecosystem.”

“All measures that help increase transparency in the foreign exchange market and support market participants’ compliance with the FX Global Code are welcomed by the Global Monetary Committee,” said its chairman, Andrea M. Mahler.

“Credit Suisse (CS) supports compliance with the FX Global Code and we appreciate the work done by EBS Direct to encourage compliance,” the post reads. John Estrada, Global Head of FX Trading in the CS. “FX needs to keep moving forward and this work is a step in the right direction.”

“We applaud the efforts and progress made by both EBS and its LP in tightening the last check time thresholds,” added Zar Amrolia, Chairman and Co-CEO of XTX Markets. “Today’s changes to EBS are an important step in the industry’s journey towards zero additional holding time in accordance with the FX Global Code.”

The updates follow an in-depth look at trading on EBS Direct which reveals that the average last look wait time in 2022 was just 12 milliseconds, with 96% of the volumes coming from liquidity providers that have declared their commitment to the FX Global Code.

To help clients across the ecosystem, EBS Direct is also enhancing its industry-leading and highly transparent Transaction Cost Analysis (TCA) tools, including metrics to monitor the quality of streams, such as whether the counterparty is aligned with the exchange, and the median, 90% and 99 % last viewed.