Glosario

FX market participants are the main players in the world of global foreign exchange. They can be classified into three broad categories: liquidity providers, end-users and governments. Helped by brokers and dealers with whom they have close relationships, international banks are the key liquidity providers. They facilitate end-users’ access to liquidity. The most important end-users are corporations, hedgers and speculators. Corporations use FX markets to settle foreign-currency denominated transactions and to hedge the corresponding currency risk, mainly with forward contracts. Speculators include FX- and macro-oriented hedge funds, asset managers and retail investors. Governments are active in FX markets mainly with the activities of central banks. Central banks are the issuers of individual currencies; they can affect currency rates by intervening directly in FX markets or —as happens much more frequently— by altering liquidity conditions through monetary policy tools to act on short-term interest rates.