The wholesale currency market is the market in which banks, other financial institutions and large corporates trade currency with each other. The Bank for International Settlements measured global turnover at US$9.5 trillion a day in April 2025, up 27 per cent on 2022. A mid-market rate is the midpoint between the buying and selling prices quoted in that market, and every retail quote is derived from it.
Every currency rate anyone ever sees started life as a price between institutions. Understanding what that market is makes the rest of the subject much easier, because almost everything else is derived from it.
It is very large and it is not an exchange
There is no stock exchange for currency. The market is over-the-counter, meaning trades are agreed bilaterally between two parties rather than matched on a central venue, and it operates continuously through the working week across time zones.
The best measurement of its size comes from the Bank for International Settlements, which has surveyed foreign exchange turnover every three years since 1986. The 2025 survey collected data from more than 1,100 banks and other dealers across 52 jurisdictions, reported by sales desks regardless of where a trade was ultimately executed. It found global turnover of US$9.5 trillion a day in April 2025, up 27 per cent on April 2022.
Trading is geographically concentrated. On the survey's measure the United Kingdom accounted for about 38 per cent, the United States about 19 per cent, Singapore 11.8 per cent and Hong Kong 7.0 per cent, so four locations intermediate roughly three-quarters of all currency trading. Sixty-three per cent of turnover was cross-border.
Who is actually trading
The composition is the part that surprises people.
| Counterparty, April 2025 | Share of global turnover |
|---|---|
| Reporting dealers | 46% |
| Other financial institutions | 50% |
| - of which non-reporting banks | 24% |
| - of which institutional investors | 13% |
| - of which hedge funds and proprietary trading firms | 8% |
| - of which the official sector | 1% |
| Non-financial customers | 5% |
The four named sub-categories account for 46 of the 50 percentage points; the survey does not break out the remainder. The three top-level shares sum to 101 rather than 100, which is rounding in the survey's own table.
Non-financial customers, meaning ordinary businesses buying currency for commercial purposes, were 5 per cent, down from 6 per cent in 2022 and 7 per cent in 2019.
So the overwhelming majority of currency trading is financial institutions dealing with each other. The commercial activity that gives the market its original purpose is a small and shrinking slice of the volume.
Not all of the instruments are what a general reader would picture either. Spot transactions, the simple exchange of one currency for another now, were US$3 trillion a day, or 31 per cent. Foreign exchange swaps were the largest single category at 42 per cent, and they are predominantly very short-dated, up to seven days. Outright forwards were 19 per cent and options 7 per cent, with currency swaps making up the remaining 2 per cent or so.
Most of it is invisible, by construction
A striking finding from the 2025 survey is that dealers match more than 80 per cent of customer spot volumes internally, a practice the market calls internalisation. When a bank receives an order to buy a currency, it most often offsets it against another customer's order to sell, inside its own book, rather than passing it out to an external market.
That has a direct consequence for anyone trying to observe the market: the price formation that matters is happening inside institutions, not on a public venue. The survey also identifies about 13 per cent of headline turnover, US$1.2 trillion, as non-market-facing trades, meaning back-to-back risk transfers between a dealer's own desks plus compression activity. Headline turnover is not all price-forming.
Execution itself is a mix. About 59 per cent of transactions were electronic in 2025, effectively unchanged on the prior survey, with voice trading still material for large spot trades and bespoke derivatives. Customers can now reach more than fifteen multi-dealer platforms and more than a dozen non-bank liquidity providers.
What a midpoint is the midpoint of
Because the market quotes two prices, a price to buy and a higher price to sell, there is a number exactly between them. That is what a mid-market rate is, and it is the figure the interbank rate is usually taken to mean in everyday use.
The Reserve Bank of Australia describes the construction of its own published rates precisely: for most currencies they are calculated by crossing the rate for the United States dollar with the Bank's observations of the midpoints of buying and selling rates quoted at around the same time. Rates are observed at 4pm Sydney time. The Bank attaches a caveat worth carrying: its published rates "are indications of market value only and may differ from those quoted by foreign exchange dealers."
The European Central Bank publishes its euro reference rates on a similar basis, set through a daily concertation procedure among European central banks at around 14:10 Central European Time and published at around 16:00 each working day. It is equally direct about their purpose: "The reference rates are published for information purposes only. Using the rates for transaction purposes is strongly discouraged."
A mid-market rate is a reference point. It is what a quote can be compared against, and it is not itself a quote.
Spot means two days, mostly
The word spot suggests immediacy, and in the sense that matters it delivers it: the rate is fixed at the moment of agreement. Settlement, the actual exchange of the two currencies, follows shortly after.
The Bank for International Settlements defines a spot transaction as the exchange of two currencies at a rate agreed on the date of the contract, for value or delivery within two business days. Its reporting guidelines add that where a national market treats three-to-seven-day contracts as spot, the survey requires them reported as forwards instead.
The Global Foreign Exchange Committee puts the market convention plainly: "For spot FX the market standard for most currency pairs is T+2, meaning settlement occurs two business days after the trade date." There are documented exceptions that settle in one business day, including the United States dollar against the Canadian dollar, the Turkish lira, the Philippine peso and the Russian rouble.
That convention is under pressure from an unrelated direction. North America moved securities settlement from two days to one in May 2024, and the United Kingdom, the European Union, Switzerland and Liechtenstein transition simultaneously on 11 October 2027. Under two-day securities settlement an investor buying foreign shares has a full day to arrange the currency leg; under one-day settlement that window shrinks dramatically. The Committee is nonetheless cautious about the currency market following: previous attempts at same-day settlement, it records, were discontinued because of high cost and low volumes.
Where the two currency legs finally change hands, they mostly do so through a settlement system built to remove the risk that one side pays and the other does not. CLS settles on a payment-versus-payment basis, meaning a payment instruction in one currency is not settled unless the counter-currency instruction settles too, and reported average daily settlement of US$7.9 trillion across 18 currencies in the first half of 2025.
The Australian slice
Australia is the eleventh largest currency market. The Reserve Bank's February 2026 analysis of the survey put Australian turnover at US$201 billion a day, up 34 per cent on April 2022. The Australian Foreign Exchange Committee, which surveys 23 institutions active locally, measured US$178.6 billion a day in October 2025.
The more revealing figure is where Australian dollar trading happens: about 90 per cent of it takes place outside Australia. The currency is far more international than the market that issues it.
Where to look next
- Mid-market rate - the midpoint itself, and what it is used for.
- Interbank rate - the wholesale rate this market produces.
- Spot rate - the settlement convention in glossary form.
- Understanding transfer fees - what the gap between a wholesale price and a retail one costs a sender, which is a different question from how the wholesale price is formed.
Sources
- Bank for International Settlements, Triennial Central Bank Survey: OTC foreign exchange turnover in April 2025 (September 2025) - the survey's history and scope, the counterparty and instrument composition, the geographic shares and cross-border proportion, and the non-market-facing trade estimate. These are the survey's preliminary figures
- Bank for International Settlements Quarterly Review, Global FX markets when hedging takes centre stage (8 December 2025) - the final revised headline of US$9.5 trillion a day and the 27 per cent increase, and the finding that dealers internalise more than 80 per cent of customer spot volumes
- Bank for International Settlements Quarterly Review, The FX trade execution landscape through the prism of the 2025 Triennial Survey (8 December 2025) - the electronic execution share, the persistence of voice trading, and the number of multi-dealer platforms and non-bank liquidity providers customers can reach
- Bank for International Settlements Data Portal glossary, Spot - the definition of a spot transaction and the reporting treatment of three-to-seven-day contracts
- Global Foreign Exchange Committee, FX Market Preparedness for the UK, EU, Switzerland and Liechtenstein Move to T+1 Securities Settlement (December 2025) - the statement of the two-day market standard, the named one-day exceptions, the North American move in May 2024 and the 11 October 2027 transition, the shrinking currency execution window, and the note on previous same-day settlement attempts
- Global Foreign Exchange Committee, FX Global Code (December 2024) - the enumeration of wholesale market participants and the scope boundary excluding entities considered retail market participants in their jurisdiction
- CLS Group, CLSSettlement - payment-versus-payment settlement and the average daily settlement value across 18 currencies in the first half of 2025
- Reserve Bank of Australia, Definitions and Sources, Exchange Rates - the construction of published rates from midpoints of buying and selling rates crossed through the United States dollar, the 4pm Sydney observation, and the caveat on indications of market value
- European Central Bank, Euro foreign exchange reference rates - the daily concertation procedure and its timing, and the statement discouraging transactional use
- Reserve Bank of Australia Bulletin, Developments in Foreign Exchange and Over-the-counter Derivatives Markets (26 February 2026) - Australia as the eleventh largest market, daily turnover and its increase, and the proportion of Australian dollar trading occurring offshore
- Australian Foreign Exchange Committee, Semi-Annual Report on Foreign Exchange Turnover (October 2025) - the local survey's coverage and the October 2025 turnover figures
Not financial advice, and not a recommendation of any product or institution. Reviewed by the Tradergy editorial team, September 2026.
Common questions
What is the interbank foreign exchange market?
The market in which banks and other large institutions trade currency with each other, as opposed to with retail customers. The Bank for International Settlements surveys it every three years and measured global turnover at US$9.5 trillion a day in April 2025. Trades between dealers were 46 per cent of that, other financial institutions 50 per cent, and non-financial customers just 5 per cent.
What does mid-market actually mean?
The midpoint between the price at which the market will buy a currency and the price at which it will sell. The Reserve Bank of Australia describes its own published rates as calculated by crossing the United States dollar rate with its observations of the midpoints of buying and selling rates quoted at around the same time. It is a reference point, not a price anybody transacts at.
Why can individuals not trade at the wholesale rate?
Because the wholesale market is a market between institutions dealing in very large sizes with established credit relationships. The Global Foreign Exchange Committee's code applies specifically to participants who are not considered retail market participants in their jurisdiction, which is the line the market itself draws. Non-financial customers accounted for only 5 per cent of global turnover in April 2025, and that share has been falling.
What does spot settlement mean?
Settlement of a currency trade shortly after it is agreed rather than at a future date. The Bank for International Settlements defines a spot transaction as the exchange of two currencies at a rate agreed on the contract date, for delivery within two business days. The Global Foreign Exchange Committee confirms two business days as the market standard for most pairs, with a handful settling in one.
Why is so little of the market visible?
Because most of it never reaches a public venue. The Bank for International Settlements found that dealers match more than 80 per cent of customer spot volumes internally, against their own books, rather than passing them to an external market. There is no single exchange for currency, and there is no consolidated tape of the kind equity markets have.