Who sets exchange rates?
The largest market in the world has no building.
Foreign exchange has no building like a stock exchange. Banks and dealers around the world trade directly, and their prices become the exchange rate. The money that moves in a day, and the map it follows.
In 30 seconds
- In April 2025, foreign exchange trading averaged $9.6 trillion a day, up 28% from $7.5 trillion three years earlier (BIS survey).
- There is no exchange building; banks and dealers trade directly. 75% of trading is booked in four places — the United Kingdom, the United States, Singapore and Hong Kong — and 38% in the UK alone.
- The US dollar is on one side of 89% of trades. The market runs 24 hours a day, travelling round the world with the time zones.
$9.6 trillion a day.
This is how large the world’s foreign exchange trading is in a single day.
Average daily foreign exchange turnover, April 2025
From the BIS survey held every three years. In 2022 it was $7.5 trillion.
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A survey every three years
Every three years the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) surveys the world’s foreign exchange trading. In April 2025 the daily average was $9.6 trillion, 28% more than $7.5 trillion in 2022.[1]
There is no building anywhere.
Foreign exchange has no single building like a stock exchange. Banks and dealers trade directly with one another.
Banks and dealers that took part in the 2025 survey (more than)
Collected by central banks and others in 52 countries and territories.
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An over-the-counter market
The BIS survey counts foreign exchange trades that do not go through an exchange — the “over-the-counter” market. In 2025, central banks and others in 52 countries and territories gathered figures from more than 1,100 banks and dealers.[1]
No single person sets the rate. The buying and selling prices offered by many participants become the rate of the moment.
A lopsided map.
Much of the trading is gathered at desks in a few cities.
Share of the world’s foreign exchange trading booked at UK desks
The top four — the UK, the US, Singapore and Hong Kong — account for 75%.
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Four desks
In April 2025, desks in the United Kingdom, the United States, Singapore and Hong Kong accounted for 75% of the world’s foreign exchange trading; the UK alone for 38%.[1]
These figures describe where trades are booked, not the nationality of those trading.
The dollar on one side of almost every trade.
A foreign exchange trade pairs two currencies. On one side there is usually the US dollar.
Share of trades with the US dollar on the buying or selling side
Each trade involves two currencies, so the shares add up to 200%.
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Shares by currency
In April 2025 the US dollar was on one side of 89% of trades. The euro was on 28.9%, the yen on 16.8% and the pound sterling on 10.2%.[1]
Twenty-four hours, turning with the sunrise.
As one city goes to sleep, desks in another open.
The hours in which the foreign exchange market is active
There is no single opening or closing time; it moves with each city’s time zone.
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A market that never sleeps
The Foreign Exchange Committee supported by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York describes foreign exchange as a market that operates 24 hours a day.[2] A 1997 paper from the same bank also portrays a market that travels round the world with the time zones.[3]
The order in which 9 am arrives
The drawing above places the times at which 9 am (standard time) arrives in Sydney, Tokyo, Singapore, London and New York on a clock set to Coordinated Universal Time. It does not show rules about trading hours.
This is not investment advice
This edition explains how the foreign exchange market works. It does not recommend buying or selling any currency.
Next question
NEXT QUESTIONA price tag for the night you carry over.NEXT QUESTIONOne question at the till.See the Field Notes shelf →What this edition cannot tell you
- The share of trading done by individuals. The survey counts bank and dealer desks and does not separate individual trading.
- Rules on trading hours by city. The market has no single opening or closing time.