foreign exchange market

foreign exchange market, institution for the exchange of one country’s currency with that of another country. Foreign exchange markets are actually made up of many different markets, because the trade between individual currencies—say, the euro and the U.S. dollar—each constitutes a market. The foreign exchange markets are the original and oldest financial markets and remain the basis upon which the rest of the financial structure exists and is traded: foreign exchange markets provide international liquidity, preferably with relative stability.

A foreign exchange market is a 24-hour over-the-counter (OTC) and dealers’ market, meaning that transactions are completed between two participants via telecommunications technology. The currency markets are also further divided into spot markets—which are for two-day settlements—and the forward, swap, interbank futures, and options markets. London, New York, and Tokyo dominate foreign exchange trading. The currency markets are the largest and most liquid of all the financial markets; the triennial figures from the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) put daily global turnover in the foreign exchange markets in trillions of dollars. It is sobering to consider that in the early 21st century an annual world trade’s foreign exchange is traded in just less than every five days on the currency markets, although the widespread use of hedging and exchanges into and out of vehicle currencies—as a more liquid medium of exchange—means that such measures of financial activity can be exaggerated.

The original demand for foreign exchange arose from merchants’ requirements for foreign currency to settle trades. However, now, as well as trade and investment requirements, foreign exchange is also bought and sold for risk management (hedging), arbitrage, and speculative gain. Therefore, financial, rather than trade, flows act as the key determinant of exchange rates; for example, interest rate differentials act as a magnet for yield-driven capital. Thus, the currency markets are often held to be a permanent and ongoing referendum on government policy decisions and the health of the economy; if the markets disapprove, they will vote with their feet and exit a currency. However, debates about the actual versus potential mobility of capital remain contested, as do those about whether exchange rate movements can best be characterized as rational, “overshooting,” or speculatively irrational.

The increasingly asymmetric relationship between the currency markets and national governments represents a classic autonomy problem. The “trilemma” of economic policy options available to governments are laid out by the Mundell-Fleming model. The model shows that governments have to choose two of the following three policy aims: (1) domestic monetary autonomy (the ability to control the money supply and set interest rates and thus control growth); (2) exchange rate stability (the ability to reduce uncertainty through a fixed, pegged, or managed regime); and (3) capital mobility (allowing investment to move in and out of the country).

Historically, different international monetary systems have emphasized different policy mixes. For instance, the Bretton Woods system emphasized the first two at the expense of free capital movement. The collapse of the system destroyed the stability and predictability of the currency markets. The resultant large fluctuations meant a rise in exchange rate risk (as well as in profit opportunities). Governments now face numerous challenges that are often captured under the term globalization or capital mobility: the move to floating exchange rates, the political liberalization of capital controls, and technological and financial innovation.

In the contemporary international monetary system, floating exchange rates are the norm. However, different governments pursue a variety of alternative policy mixes or attempt to minimize exchange rate fluctuations through different strategies. For example, the United States displayed a preference for ad hoc international coordination, such as the Plaza Agreement in 1985 and the Louvre Accord in 1987, to intervene and manage the price of the dollar. Europe responded by forging ahead with a regional monetary union based on the desire to eliminate exchange rate risk, whereas many developing governments with smaller economies chose the route of “dollarization”—that is, either fixing to or choosing to have the dollar as their currency.

The international governance regime is a complex and multilayered bricolage of institutions, with private institutions playing an important role; witness the large role for private institutions, such as credit rating agencies, in guiding the markets. Also, banks remain the major players in the market and are supervised by the national monetary authorities. These national monetary authorities follow the international guidelines promulgated by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, which is part of the BIS. Capital adequacy requirements are to protect principals against credit risk, market risk, and settlement risk. Crucially, the risk management, certainly within the leading international banks, has become to a large extent a matter for internal setting and monitoring.

The series of contagious currency crises in the 1990s—in Mexico, Brazil, East Asia, and Argentina—again focused policy makers’ minds on the problems of the international monetary system. Moves, albeit limited, were made toward a new international financial architecture. Most importantly, these crises led to the establishment of the Financial Stability Forum (since 2009 the Financial Stability Board), which investigated the problems of offshore, capital flows, and hedge funds; and the G20, which attempted to broaden the international regime’s membership and thus deepen its legitimacy. In addition, there were calls for a currency transaction tax, named after Nobel Laureate James Tobin’s proposal, from many civil society nongovernmental organizations as well as some governments. The success of international monetary reform is a crucial issue for governments and their autonomy, firms and the stability of their investments, and citizens who ultimately are those who absorb these effects as they are transmitted into everyday life.

Barry Eichengreen, Globalizing Capital: A History of the International Monetary System (1996); Lanya Mosley, Global Capital and National Governments (2003); Susan Strange, Casino Capitalism (1986).