Features : World’s Best Foreign Exchange Banks 2006

The many barrels of ink spent on explaining Chinas 2.1% revaluation of the yuan last Julyand the ongoing effort of the Group of 7 industrial countries to force a bigger movedemonstrate the importance of the foreign exchange market. And regardless of the significance of exchange rates in widening global trade imbalances, the sheer volume of currency trading has grown rapidly to nearly $2 trillion a day, keeping foreign exchange the worlds biggest financial market by far.

Currency movements, often difficult to predict or understand, have ramifications for all of the financial markets. Many bank analysts were caught off-guard by the dollars surprising strength in 2005, particularly against the Japanese yen. Wherever the dollar, the yen, the euro, the yuan and the British pound may wander in 2006, corporations will need the help of expert currency traders and derivatives providers to manage their foreign exchange exposures and to make cross-border payments.

Global Finance has selected the leading foreign exchange banks in 71 countries and regions, as well as the best online foreign exchange trading systems and the best bank for foreign exchange research. With input from industry analysts, corporate executives and technology experts, Global Finance editors selected the winners based on objective and subjective factors. As usual, our criteria included transaction volume, market share, scope of global coverage, customer service, competitive pricing and innovative technologies.

Gordon Platt