Agency desks take on risk to raise revenues

A number of foreign exchange agency brokers are taking on intra-day risk to adapt to tighter spreads and find additional sources of revenue, in response to declining FX volumes this year. But this has raised questions from some brokers as to exactly what services their competitors are offering.

Agency brokers, who traditionally operate a commission-based fee structure, whereby client orders are transacted immediately into the external market, have been using technology providers to internalise