Citco Middle Office Solutions report: Soaring volatility sparks further jump in trade operations activity

31 October 2024 - The third quarter of 2024 was dominated by a switch in tone across markets, with a rate cut, falling inflation, equity market rotation and increasing volatility all driving activity across middle office teams.

Our Q3 2024 Middle Office Solutions report reveals that all these events combined to spark a large increase in demand for trade operations in Q3. Having already surged significantly in Q2 by 24%, the number of affirmed trades rose another 10% QoQ to 597,880 trades in Q3, driven by listed trades (which stayed near levels seen in Q2) and a sharp jump in equity swaps which surged 47%.

Overall treasury payment volumes rose marginally by 1%, but there was a 7% increase in the value of treasury transactions in Q3 to $476B.