Monday, September 4, 2000		Article

Online Forex trading new Net battlefield

The $ 1,500 billion a day international foreign exchange market is about to be turned into an Internet battleground. Three leading banks — Citibank, Chase Investment Bank and Deutsche Bank — are teaming up with Reuters to develop a company to deliver foreign exchange dealing services.

That will put them in direct competition with FX Alliance — a 13-strong banking consortium that revealed its net Forex plans earlier this year.

The three banks and Reuters declined to comment on the scheme, which is being put together under the codename Rose. Banking sources in London, however, said that although the project had still to be finalised yet was expected to be launched in the first quarter of next year and would offer a full range of services by the third quarter of the year.

The creation of rival online Forex services highlights the growing trend towards the use of the Internet for the trading of currency products.

Industry sources say customers increasingly want to use a single platform rather than a raft of systems each owned by a different bank.

The crucial question for the rivals is whether there is a big enough market for two online services, whether they will be able to offer different products and services or whether the rivalry will come down to price.

"They could end up specialising in different things but if they don’t differentiate themselves like this it will come down to prices.

"In the short term, Citibank, Deutsche and Chase could be very aggressive on the pricing," said one source in the banking industry.

The plans for FX Alliance, which is expected to be up and running either later this year or early next, were announced in June.

Initially its line-up was Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, Credit Suisse

First Boston, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, JP Morgan, Bank of America and UBS

Warburg. However, another six banks, including Dresdner Kleinwort Benson and the Royal Bank of Scotland, signed up last month.

Citibank, Deutsche and Chase are all believed to have been involved in the original talks over FX Alliance.

According to another banking source, there were talks between the heads of 12 banks in New York.

"There were discussions and it got to the point where things had gone far enough for them to say that people either had to declare a conflict of interest or walk away. Citi, Deutsche and Chase walked away."

— By arrangement with
The Guardian