Wellington-based foreign exchange broker Fixed Interest Securities (FIS) has stopped trading in the key New Zealand spot currency market.
FIS was one of only two New Zealand market players to trade by voice, rather than through an electronic screen-based system.
FIS withdrew its live trades service of the kiwi against the US dollar last week, but will continue to offer other money market products such as interest rate swaps and forward rate agreements.
One FIS broker said it was a commercial decision to no longer offer a service in spot kiwi, and not because the New Zealand dollar market was drying up.
Populated a few years ago by more than a dozen major players, the New Zealand dollar market has thinned to Deutsche Bank London, National Bank, CBA, Citibank Sydney, BNZ, Westpac and ANZ.
Boutique six-year old Wellington firm Direct FX is the sole remaining voice broker in New Zealand.
Turnover in the New Zealand foreign exchange market has almost halved to an average of $US4.2 billion a day in April 2001, down from $US6.9 billion a day in 1998, a Reserve Bank survey released in October shows.
The survey, part of a three-yearly survey of 48 countries, showed a global reduction in turnover of 18 per cent.
- NZPA
Voice broker quits NZ spot currency market
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