Australia’s foreign exchange trading hit a record high in April as volatility and policy headlines stoked activity, according to the Reserve Bank of Australia’s contribution to the Bank for International Settlements’ triennial survey.
Average daily turnover in Australia’s FX market rose 34 per cent to US$201 billion in April 2025, up from US$150 billion in April 2022, leaving Australia as the world’s 11th largest FX centre by turnover. The survey period coincided with elevated currency swings and a burst of trading after several major economies announced changes to trade policy.
The Australian dollar remained the seventh most traded currency globally, down one place from the previous survey, with its global share steady at about 6 per cent. The AUD/USD stayed the sixth most traded currency pair worldwide, accounting for roughly 5 per cent of all transactions.
FX swaps continued to dominate activity in Australia, making up around 53 per cent of turnover. Spot trading increased its share to 25 per cent from 23 per cent in 2022, while outright forwards were little changed at 18 per cent.
Turnover in Australia’s over‑the‑counter interest rate derivatives market surged, with average daily activity up 123 per cent to US$252 billion in the latest survey period, driven largely by higher volumes in interest rate swaps.
The BIS coordinated the global exercise across 52 jurisdictions to produce comparable measures of the size and structure of FX and OTC derivatives markets. Central banks have run the FX survey every three years since 1986 and the OTC interest rate derivatives survey since 1995.
The RBA noted that Australian figures are compiled on a “net‑gross” basis, which removes local inter‑dealer double counting, while global numbers are on a “net‑net” basis that also strips out cross‑border inter‑dealer duplication.
Preliminary global results are available on the BIS website, with final data and analysis due in December 2025. More detailed Australian results have been published by the RBA, and the BIS plans to release global data on amounts outstanding in OTC derivatives in November 2025.
