The aim of the code is to ensure that the global currency market, which trades USD 5 trillion every day, works well for all participants. Work on the code, which involved a two-year effort, was conducted by 16 central banks together with more than 40 global market participants, including 18 banks.
Stina Norrhede, head of Corporate Sales within Markets, was SEB’s representative in the work. Last week she attended a meeting in London, which was the formal end note for the work and at the same time the starting point for creation of a global committee for currency trading, which is tasked with ensuring adoption and compliance with the code.
Development of the new code emanated from the background of the cases of market abuse that were uncovered in the wake of the financial crisis, which led to several international banks being ordered to pay substantial damages.
“In connection with the meeting, calculations were presented which show that the level of fines paid by banks represents a loss of market capital equivalent to five trillion pounds in lending. This is money that could instead have contributed to development and growth,” says Norrhede.
Svante Hedin, responsible for electronic trading at SEB, was also deeply involved in this work in his role as President of the trade organisation ACI Sweden.
“As far as I know this is the only example of a global code of best practice that so deeply anchored with participants across the entire financial market including central banks as well as trading platforms and buy-side and sell-side firms” he says. “We have agreed on a foundation of values that stresses the importance of ethics and transparency.”
The work on anchoring the code has already begun. SEB will sign the formal letter of commitment and will work for broader adoption of the code in the market.