Research by Greenwich Associates (released in March 2010) states that around the world, multi-bank electronic trading platforms captured about 40% of overall FX trading volume in 2008-2009 and single-bank platforms captured another 15%.

However, the two most authoritative sources of actual empirical data on FX activity, namely the Bank of England (BoE) and the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) seem to paint a very different picture!

Bank of England (BoE): Empirical data released by the Bank of England (Oct 2009), covering FX activity between reporting dealers and clients in London (the largest global FX market), shows that single dealer platforms (SDPs) accounted for 25% of all electronic FX volume, compared with only 13% of electronic volume done through multi-dealer platforms (MDPs) - see chart below.

Bank of International Settlements (BIS): The most definitive empirical data on global FX volumes is produced every three years by the BIS in their Triennial survey. Data from the 2007 triennial survey shows a similar picture to the BoE data. Whilst electronic trading accunted for some 34% of all global daily FX volumes, nearly 30% of all etrading was executed through SDPs, compared with only 21% of etrading executed through MDPs.  - see chart below.

The 2010 Triennial Central Bank Survey of FX activity will be released in August, and should prove fascinating reading in terms of the latest trends.

Top chart Daily London eFX volumes by SDP and MDP (BofE -2009)

Bottom chart:Daily Global eFX volumes by SDP and MDP (BIS-2007)