International currency transfers are nothing but Forex or foreign exchange trading. You may have seen numerous Forex trading centers by the wayside or on your computer screen. However, this market is not a modern-day phenomenon only. Its origin can be traced back to ancient times.
Interesting Fact 1: Ancient history of Foreign Exchange
Its roots can be traced back to ancient times, to be specific during Biblical times through Talmudic writings. The closest form of today’s international currency transfer originated in the 15thcentury when the textile merchants needed currency exchange. For facilitating the trade of currency, the Medici family opened banks at multiple foreign locations and traders could exchange currencies through special account books called “Nostro”.
Interesting Fact 2: Origination of Forex
The first-ever active Forex originated in the seventeenth and eighteenth century when exchange used to take place between agents as well as merchants. The leading participant in currency trading in the USA around 1850 was the firm named Alexander Brown & Sons. Another thirty years later, around the 1880s, 1another person named J.M. do Espírito Santo de Silva was allowed to get involved in the foreign exchange trading business. 1880 is an important year for the trading world because the gold standard was introduced in that year. In fact, that’s the reason why this year is considered by many as the most credible signal of the beginning of the modern-day foreign exchange.
Interesting Fact 3: International Currency Transfersin Modern Times
It was in June 1973 that telex and telephones were replaced by the computer monitors for currency trading quotes by Reuters. Especially when the internet was unavailable, in the mid-1980s, Reuters came up with a special kind of electronic Forex trading known as “Reuters Dealing”, which was a closed network chat system on a real-time basis.
International currency transfers in the mid-1990s used to take place exclusively through corporations and banks that were capable of pulling together minimum liquidity of anything from US$40 to US$50 million. Retail traders were able to trade Forex only during the introduction of online trading platforms.
Interesting Fact 4: An over Trillion-Dollar Market
Reports say that the daily volume of trade in the international currency transfers market is over US$5.3 trillion. It is 2013 data. The next data will be revealed through a Triennial survey by the Bank of International Settlements (BIS). In the 2010 data, it can be seen that the forex market volume per day was US$3.98 trillion. This means there has been a 33 percent increase in the traded volume in just 3 years. This increase is more significant because the jump has occurred on such a gigantic monetary traded volume of US$3.98 trillion.
Interesting Fact 5: Which Currency pair is known as “Cable”? Why?
The currency pair of British £ and US $ is known as “cable”.There is an interesting aspect associated with the GBP-USD currency pair. Before the advent of global communication satellite or fiber-optic technology, the London Stock Exchange and New York Stock Exchange were connected through giant steel cables that were laid below the Atlantic. That’s how the GBP-USD currency pair got its name – “cable”.
These are the 5 interesting facts associated with international currency transfers.
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