Average daily turnover in North American over-the-counter foreign exchange instruments reached $1.3824 trillion in April 2026, according to the Foreign Exchange Committee survey hosted by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The total was 5.9% above October 2025 and 0.3% above April 2025, but the aggregate conceals a meaningful change in the instrument mix. Foreign Exchange Committee: April 2026 North American FX Volume Survey
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USD/CAD and USD/BRL recorded the largest survey-over-survey increases in transaction value across instruments, while GBP/USD and USD/CHF recorded the largest declines. Year over year, EUR/USD and USD/JPY turnover fell most in dollar terms. These are activity comparisons, not performance rankings. A pair can trade heavily while ending a period close to where it began, and lower reported volume does not prove that liquidity was inadequate. For brokers and institutional users, the mix matters operationally. Spot, forwards, swaps and options create different settlement, credit, collateral and valuation demands. A surge in options volume can increase lifecycle and volatility-surface workloads; growth in forwards can increase confirmation and maturity-management tasks. These are reasonable operational implications, not findings attributed to the survey itself.
USD/CAD and USD/BRL recorded the largest survey-over-survey increases in transaction value across instruments, while GBP/USD and USD/CHF recorded the largest declines. Year over year, EUR/USD and USD/JPY turnover fell most in dollar terms. These are activity comparisons, not performance rankings. A pair can trade heavily while ending a period close to where it began, and lower reported volume does not prove that liquidity was inadequate. For brokers and institutional users, the mix matters operationally. Spot, forwards, swaps and options create different settlement, credit, collateral and valuation demands. A surge in options volume can increase lifecycle and volatility-surface workloads; growth in forwards can increase confirmation and maturity-management tasks. These are reasonable operational implications, not findings attributed to the survey itself.
Readers should compare the April 2026 tables with the October 2025 and April 2025 tables using the same instrument, counterparty and currency-pair definitions. The survey covers participating North American dealers and OTC activity; it is not a census of every global venue and should not be presented as total worldwide FX turnover. The committee’s methodology and participant list define the coverage boundary. [cite:nyfed-fx-volume-apr26] For a trading or capacity decision, combine this survey with venue-specific volumes, spreads, depth, rejection rates and settlement data from the relevant service. The next survey can change the trend. The defensible conclusion on September 28 is narrow: reported North American OTC turnover increased from October overall, while the components and counterparties moved at different rates. One useful follow-up is to translate the percentages back into the institution’s own workflow. A broker may care about peak-message rates and prime-broker limits; a corporate treasurer may care about forward liquidity around fixing windows; an asset manager may care about option pricing and roll capacity. None of those questions can be answered by headline turnover alone. The survey is best treated as a benchmark that identifies where deeper operational checks are warranted. Teams should document the comparison date, measurement basis and business assumption used, then revisit the decision when the next semiannual release arrives. That approach prevents a short-lived increase in one instrument from being mistaken for a permanent change in market structure.
Spot, forwards and options rose while FX swaps declined
Twenty leading institutions active in the North American market supplied the April data. Compared with October 2025, average daily spot volume increased 10.4%, outright forwards rose 15.0% and OTC options increased 30.9%. FX swaps moved in the opposite direction, falling 6.2%. Year over year, spot and options were lower, while forwards and swaps were higher. Those different comparison windows are essential: a six-month rebound is not automatically a year-over-year expansion. Foreign Exchange Committee: April 2026 North American FX Volume Survey
Counterparty figures also diverged. Turnover with reporting dealers rose 12.1%, other financial customers increased 18.3% and other dealers gained 7.2% from October. Nonfinancial-customer turnover fell 21.4%. The survey measures gross transaction volume during one month; it does not report profit, open risk or the direction of investors’ currency views. A buy and a sell both contribute to turnover.
More activity does not identify a bullish or bearish currency signal
USD/CAD and USD/BRL recorded the largest survey-over-survey increases in transaction value across instruments, while GBP/USD and USD/CHF recorded the largest declines. Year over year, EUR/USD and USD/JPY turnover fell most in dollar terms. These are activity comparisons, not performance rankings. A pair can trade heavily while ending a period close to where it began, and lower reported volume does not prove that liquidity was inadequate.
For brokers and institutional users, the mix matters operationally. Spot, forwards, swaps and options create different settlement, credit, collateral and valuation demands. A surge in options volume can increase lifecycle and volatility-surface workloads; growth in forwards can increase confirmation and maturity-management tasks. These are reasonable operational implications, not findings attributed to the survey itself.
Use like-for-like periods and definitions before drawing conclusions
Readers should compare the April 2026 tables with the October 2025 and April 2025 tables using the same instrument, counterparty and currency-pair definitions. The survey covers participating North American dealers and OTC activity; it is not a census of every global venue and should not be presented as total worldwide FX turnover. The committee’s methodology and participant list define the coverage boundary. Foreign Exchange Committee: April 2026 North American FX Volume Survey
For a trading or capacity decision, combine this survey with venue-specific volumes, spreads, depth, rejection rates and settlement data from the relevant service. The next survey can change the trend. The defensible conclusion on September 28 is narrow: reported North American OTC turnover increased from October overall, while the components and counterparties moved at different rates.
One useful follow-up is to translate the percentages back into the institution’s own workflow. A broker may care about peak-message rates and prime-broker limits; a corporate treasurer may care about forward liquidity around fixing windows; an asset manager may care about option pricing and roll capacity. None of those questions can be answered by headline turnover alone. The survey is best treated as a benchmark that identifies where deeper operational checks are warranted. Teams should document the comparison date, measurement basis and business assumption used, then revisit the decision when the next semiannual release arrives. That approach prevents a short-lived increase in one instrument from being mistaken for a permanent change in market structure.