CME Group Unveils FX Tape+ To Enhance Transparency In Foreign Exchange

CME Group, recognised as the world’s leading derivatives marketplace, has announced plans to launch CME FX Tape+, a new service aimed at providing centralised reference prices and a comprehensive view of foreign exchange (FX) market liquidity. The launch is scheduled for later this year and will consolidate price information from its central limit order book (CLOB) marketplaces, including FX futures, EBS Market, FX Spot+, and FX Link.

The move comes amid ongoing industry calls for greater transparency in the fragmented FX market, where pricing has traditionally relied on less transparent or indicative sources.
 

Paul Houston, Global Head of FX Products, CME Group
 

According to Paul Houston, Global Head of FX Products, CME Group, “By bringing together price information from our network of 1,400 institutions and over 100,000 active FX market participants, CME Group is uniquely positioned to enhance transparency in the fragmented FX market. CME FX Tape+ will give users a unique view of centralised spot and forward liquidity, enabling them to better manage their trading costs and benchmark their strategies.”

Unlike other industry reference pricing sources, which often use indicative or curated pricing from opaque venues, CME FX Tape+ will be based solely on actionable, firm liquidity from CME Group’s FX spot and futures markets. The initial offering will cover ten major currencies and will provide a composite ‘true’ spot mid-price, aggregating liquidity, trades, and mid-rates from across the included venues.
 

CME FX Tape+ will disseminate reference data at 250 millisecond intervals via websocket API, as well as through historic market data files. This is expected to improve market participants’ ability to analyse the total cost and execution quality of their trades.
 

CME Group enables clients to trade futures, options, cash and OTC markets, optimise portfolios, and analyse data. Its exchanges offer a broad range of global benchmark products across asset classes such as interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, energy, agricultural products, and metals. Trading is facilitated through the CME Globex platform for futures and options, BrokerTec for fixed income, and EBS for foreign exchange.

CME Group also operates CME Clearing, one of the world’s leading central counterparty clearing providers.

The introduction of FX Tape+ is likely to be closely watched by institutional and professional market participants seeking more reliable and transparent reference pricing in the FX space.