There are few participants in the FX market who need to be reminded about the events of January 2015, however there is a possibility that history could be about to repeat itself, which seems to be a risk that is rather less in the front of mind of today’s operators.

Recently, there have been some new offerings coming on to the market offering retail brokers direct access to liquidity. The implication is that by accessing the primary market “directly”, the broker will get better trading terms. 

This is actually not the case, and it shows a fundamental lack of understanding on the part of the technology companies who are providing the offering, and even more surprisingly, the “Prime of Primes” who are “clearing"it.

When I sat on a panel at the FX Week conference in London alongside representatives from industry peers, we were all asked  “how does the cost of your service compare to the cost of a Tier 1 PB?”  The response of our peers was unanimous and astonishing, all of them stating that their service will be “a little more expensive” than a Tier 1 PB.  

In 2015, I wrote an opinion piece about the inherent inefficiencies of re-aggregation of Prime of Prime feeds and I believe it is a good time to refresh this topic from a different perspective.