Brexit flows help Thomson Reuters FX volumes hit 15-month high

By Jemima Kelly

LONDON, July 8 (Reuters) - Average daily trading volumes on currency trading platforms run by Thomson Reuters (Dusseldorf: TOC.DU - news) jumped 14 percent in June to their highest since March 2015, the company said on Friday, helped by a surge in flows following Britain's shock vote to leave the European Union.

Spot trading in currencies on TR platforms jumped to $258 billion -- almost three times May's daily average -- as the results of the referendum on EU membership were announced on June 24, amid sharp swings in the British pound and other major pairs.

Over the whole month, that drove spot currency trading on TR platforms up 23 percent from May to an average of $116 billion, also up 7 percent on June 2015. That was the highest daily average since a China-driven surge in trading in January.

The Thomson Reuters volumes followed a similar jump in average daily volumes on rival platform platform EBS.

Total (LSE: 524773.L - news) foreign exchange trades across TR platforms, including forwards, swaps, options and non-deliverable forwards (NDFs), averaged $394 billion a day over the course of the month, up from $347 billion a day in May and $375 billion in the same month last year.

The jump in volumes offers hope to the world's biggest and most liquid financial market, where volumes have suffered in the past few months as a result of tighter bank regulation, fragile emerging markets and lighter global trade flows.

EBS, which is owned by the world's largest inter-dealer broker ICAP (LSE: IAP.L - news) , said volumes for U.S (Other OTC: UBGXF - news) . dollar, euro and yen trades more than doubled in the week after the vote for Brexit. (Reporting by Jemima Kelly; Editing by Alison Williams)