The service has been approved for launch in Australia, Hong Kong and Japan, and will be made available to the professional trading community (PTC), which includes hedge funds, fund managers and CTAs - from across the region.

Following demand from customers, EBS is now also investigating making the service available to other Asian markets.

It is estimated that there are around 7500 hedge funds worldwide, which are worth around USD 1 trillion and include those domiciled in Hong Kong, Sydney and Tokyo. As an indication of scale, it is estimated that more than USD 16 billion is invested in hedge funds in Sydney alone.

The EBS announcement follows strong customer uptake for the service from European and US banks with more than 80 customers now live from both the interbank and professional trading communities and more than 100 in the pipeline.

Volumes traded through EBS Prime are also on the increase and EBS is now reporting average daily volume from EBS Prime alone of USD 7.8 billion. As an indicator of growth, around USD 1 billion per day was being transacted on EBS Prime in November 2004.

The EBS Prime service is available to bank and more recently non-bank professional FX traders. This second non-bank segment is already adding unique liquidity to the EBS Spot trading community, by putting more quotes into the market, and trading on both sides of the market.

Mark Monahan, Head of Global Sales and Service, EBS, said: "This is a major step forward for our business in the Asia Pacific region. We are delighted to have been able to extend the success of EBS Prime to customers here.

"Professional FX traders from both bank and funds have the opportunity to see the market through the pre-screened credit of an EBS Prime bank.

"They can then be certain they are seeing the best available prices in the market through the eyes of their EBS Prime bank, and that they are accessing FX liquidity at its true source, the EBS Spot system."

Hedge fund and fund management customers access EBS Spot through an automated programming interface (API), linking the PTC's trading system to EBS, through a credit relationship with one of 16 EBS Prime banks.

Foreign exchange market data from EBS forms a key part of the organisation's offering for the professional trading community, and data from the EBS Spot system can be used to help traders to set up and test their model trading applications.

EBS offers the most complete historical FX market data, invaluable for the development of models. Reliable FX market data, measured in milliseconds, is also key to enabling PTCs to make trading decisions.

The EBS Prime model is specifically designed to maintain the relationship between the banks and their customers. EBS Prime banks are now able to market the EBS Prime offering to two specific financial services segments – local and regional banks, and the PTC.