Foreign Exchange Professionals Association (FXPA), a new trade body comprised of a cross-section of FX industry participants, is now up and running.
Based in Washington, DC, FXPA’s aim is to engage key US and international regulators, policymakers, the general public and news media, through a combination of education, research and advocacy to advance a sound, liquid, transparent and competitive global currency market.
Diversity of membership is embedded in FXPA’s organisational construct to ensure wide representation of the professional FX market. Founding members include the buy-side, exchanges, clearing houses, trading platforms, MTFs, technology companies, banks and non-bank market participants.
FXPA launched with membership from The Bank of New York Mellon, CalPERs, Campbell & Company, Citadel LLC, CME Group, GFI Group, LCH.Clearnet, LMAX Exchange, Traiana and Virtu Financial. Squire Patton Boggs serves as counsel to the FXPA.
FXPA elected Adam Cooper, senior managing director and chief legal officer of Citadel LLC, as chairman; Derek Sammann, senior managing director, global head of commodity and options products, CME Group as vice chair; Craig Messinger, executive vice president, global head of trading and risk for foreign exchange, derivatives, fixed income and equities at BNY Mellon Global Markets, as treasurer; and Eric Busay, portfolio manager, CalPERS as secretary on September 16.
In addition to the four officers, initial founding board members include Chris Concannon, president and chief operating officer, Virtu Financial; Patrick Bartle, global head of FX strategy, LMAX Exchange; Mark Sandomeno, manager, GFI emerging markets, GFI Group; Gavin Wells, global head of CDSClear & ForexClear, LCH.Clearnet.
“As technological innovation, new competitive forces, and an evolving regulatory framework redefine the FX landscape, we must promote market structure that fosters robust, efficient and transparent markets for all participants,” says Cooper. “FX is a cornerstone to our capital markets, and the FXPA is the ideal vehicle to strengthen collaboration across the industry and engagement with policymakers to achieve these shared objectives.”
“This is a watershed moment for FX as we redefine who we are as an industry and where we’re going,” adds Sammann. “FX is facing some hurdles globally: there is historically low volatility; reputational concerns around benchmarking have led to higher levels of scrutiny; and there remains a lack of clarity around regulations. None of us can do anything about the cyclical factors such as volatility, zero interest rate policies or the macros, but we can more strongly represent the voice of the FX industry to positively impact the coming market structure changes resulting from unfolding market regulations, capital changes and client product choice.
“This is the time for us as an industry to come together, roll-up our sleeves and exhibit leadership. We have to make sure that we are in a position to grow this business for the next 20 years as we have for the last 20 years. The time to act is now.”
The FXPA will consider such issues as: global FX market regulation; benchmark rates; risk controls and best practices; execution quality; post-trade reporting; and clearing of non-deliverable forwards.
