The single-largest centre of foreign exchange dealing remains London, with 37% of global turnover taking place in the city.
The survey’s findings indicate that fears London may lose its place as a key financial centre are misplaced at present.
The US, the second most important currency centre, does about half the amount of trading that takes place in London.
Jeremy Stretch, market strategist at CIBC, said there were two reasons why London maintained its pre-eminent role.
“One is a geographical quirk – it straddles the time zones of the United States and Asia, and the other is because of heavy investment in infrastructure, such as IT systems.”
The dollar remains the world’s most-traded currency, accounting for 85% of all transactions, although that is down from the 90% it reached in 2001. The currency is still the world’s central banks’ favourite currency to hold in reserve.
Simon Derrick said central banks had been building up their reserve currency holdings and that was another reason for the rise in trading volumes.
