The global financial crisis has revived the discussion on a financial transaction tax as a means of discouraging international currency speculation, help shrink 'a swollen financial sector' and perhaps simply to raise funds as an international (or national) source of revenue.

The recent disasters in the global banking system and the ensuing fallout in the derivatives markets fundamentally changed the way market participants use FX derivatives. The crippling widespread disappearance of liquidity and leverage as well as the over-regulation that many doom sayers predicted has not materialised; instead, market participants are refocusing on the core uses of derivatives that built the industry. Concurrently, there are greatly increased efforts at addressing systematic problems with efficiency and operational risk. In addition, regulators are preparing sweeping reforms to the OTC derivatives markets on both sides of the Atlantic and FX derivatives are in danger of being caught up in these reforms.

With the passing of the Commodity Futures Modernization Act (CFMA) in December 2000, the Commodities and Futures Trade Commission (CFTC) became officially responsible for regulating the retail FX market, thereby legitimizing the existence of the burgeoning retail market. Today, the retail FX market is booming with strong adoption across all major financial centers.

Despite new research showing a slight shift towards multi-dealer platforms, the demand for single bank portals, and relationship-based pricing, is still high, especially in times of crisis. Frances Maguire examines how the continued investment by banks in their platforms is ensuring they continue to grow.

Jim Nuzum CEO of GCC Markets, (www.gcc-markets.com) explores why there is growing demand for Shari'ah compliant FX trading solutions and how the latest FX e-commerce technologies can help address the needs of Islamic traders and investors.

The world's futures exchanges continue to make in-roads into the biggest OTC market in the world and with recent regulatory discussions on the need for greater use of centrally cleared products, currency trading innovation continues to gather pace within the exchanges.

The Capital Markets landscape consists of a complete multi-asset, multi-partnered and multi-regional infrastructure in order to be profitable in today's market conditions. Trading execution venues, their participants and technology vendors must now all be at the front of technology advancements. However, the need to be in as many markets and to communicate to as many clients and partners as possible has made connectivity to market access a "mine field" of obstacles. In the second in our series on high frequency FX trading, Joe Hilt, VP of Sales, North America, Hibernia Atlantic, outlines some of the key issues facing FX trading firms who are planning how best to link their trading infrastructures to trading venues and what lessons they can take from latency, networking and trading connectivity developments in other markets.

Increasing numbers of banks, asset managers, pension funds, hedge funds, and corporates are looking to ramp up their use of currency derivatives, both for hedging purposes as well as a component of their fund and investment management strategies. Although great strides have been made in automating much of the processing and workflow associated with Over The Counter derivatives, much still remains to be done, particularly with regard to cost savings and risk management.

The demand for historical FX pricing data shows little sign of abating, with advances in technology and algorithmic trading in recent years driving matters. Roger Aitken canvasses industry opinion on how this trend is affecting the sourcing and integration of such data for FX applications.

Mark Biezup, FX product Manager - SunGard Sierra, outlines why recent and projected regulatory changes along with a focus on risk management will have significant implications for FX brokers.

e-Forex talks with Michelle Neal, Global Head of electronic markets at The Royal Bank of Scotland about the consolidation of the banks' electronic platforms and the continuing development of its best of breed FX e-commerce solutions and e-trading tools.

What will be the next wave of FX algorithms? Nicholas Pratt charts the development efforts of the leading algo providers to examine how execution strategies in FX can be taken to another level.

The concept of 'Direct Market Access' (DMA) is a simple one and is yet another example of an invention that started out in the equities market and is now being adopted in the FX market. Nicholas Pratt examines the evolution of DMA and what it means for FX traders

Faced with a need for more effective risk management of their Retail FX customer positions, banks and brokerage firms in the FX space are being challenged by ballooning small ticket items, varying customer credit limits, risk mitigation issues as well strains on their back office processing capabilities. Roger Aitken talks to leading industry players to explore the key issues involved.

Social networking has now come of age in the consumer market, with the likes of Facebook, Twitter, Bebo and LinkedIn all attracting record numbers of members. Heather McLean explores how this maturing technology has now given rise to increasing interest in social networking for retail FX users, with added trading tools, charts, news feeds and forums to maximise the benefits for end users.

The CEE generally refers to the group of "Central and Eastern European" countries, formerly called the Eastern Bloc during the Cold War. These include Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovinia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Serbia and, though it was never in the communist Eastern Block as such, Turkey. Recently, eForex interviewed Karol Piovarcsy, head of the newly opened Saxo Bank branch office in Prague, and Vladimir

Service, innovation and security are the three key areas for winning the hearts and minds of retail traders. But what do these smaller traders really want from their platform providers? Heather McLean sets out to explore what brokers are doing to improve the FX experience for the armies of retail traders spilling out of the woodwork across the globe.

360^o Consulting is a consultancy based in Limassol, Cyprus (EU), which provides a variety of consulting services to the Retail Forex / CFD /Commodity investment services sector. Costas Constantinides, Director and Chief Consultant of the firm, highlights some of the key areas where the consultancy is assisting Retail FX market participants to develop their establishments and improve their business practices.