Since 1999, banks have been developing proprietary systems for their customers to trade foreign exchange and access research material over the internet. To trade with multiple banks online, customers therefore need to use a variety of authentication methods, websites and price request methods. Multi-bank platforms have evolved to allow customers to use a single website to request prices simultaneously from multiple banks and view research material online. Multi-bank platforms (also known as ECNs or electronic communication networks) offer significant advantages to customers, but fewer advantages to banks, and therefore active participation by banks in multi-bank platforms is driven largely by customer demand. However, for the banks it remains preferable for their customers to trade through bank proprietary systems as the banks avoid paying brokerage and customers are encouraged to focus only on the particular bank's prices.

There are five main customer-facing FX ECNs:

FXall - founded by Bank of America, Credit Suisse First Boston, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter and UBS
Currenex - independent and venture backed by major market participants, e.g. Barclays Capital and Royal Dutch/Shell
FX Connect - owned by State Street
360T - independent and venture backed by financial and major private investors
Hotspot FXi - independent privately held venture capital-backed company

Bank membership of multi-bank platforms is as follows:

Bank FXall Currenex FX Connect 360T Hotspot FXi Aareal Bank         ABN AMRO AIG   Allied Irish Banks         Anglo Irish Bank         ANZ Banking Group Banca Nazionale di Lavoro         Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria         Banco Santander         Bank of America   Bank of Ireland       Bank CIC         Bank of Montreal   Bank of New York Mellon       Bank of New Zealand         Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi       Banque Cantonale Vaudoise         Banque Générale du Luxembourg         Barclays Capital Basler Kantonalbank         Bayerische Landesbank       Bear Stearns   BNP Paribas Brown Brothers Harriman       Business Development Bank of Canada         Calyon   CDC IXIS         CIBC World Markets         Citibank     Commerzbank       Commonwealth Bank of Australia   Credit Suisse     Danske Bank     DBS Bank         Deutsche Bank     Deutsche Postbank International         Dexia Bank         Dresdner Bank DZ Bank         Fifth Third Bancorp       Fimat         First Rand Bank         Fortis Bank     Goldman Sachs     Handelsbanken     HSBC   HSBC Trinkaus & Burkhardt         HSH Nordbank         ING     ING BHF-Bank   IntesaBCI         JPMorgan Chase   Jyske Bank         Kas Bank           Kaupthing         KBC     Kredietbank Luxembourg         Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen         Landesbank Baden-Württemberg         Lloyds Banking Group   Macquarie Bank         Merrill Lynch     Mitsubishi Trust and Banking Corp       Morgan Stanley     Natixis         National Australia Bank   Nordea       PNC Bank       Postbank Luxembourg         PostFinance Swiss         Rabobank     Rand Merchant Bank         Royal Bank of Canada   Royal Bank of Scotland Saxo Bank         Scotia Capital   SEB       Société Générale Sparkasse Köln / Bonn         Sparkasse Oberösterreich         Standard Bank of South Africa         Standard Chartered Bank   State Street         Sumitomo       SunTrust Bank         Swiss Union of Raiffeisen Banks         The Northern Trust Company       The Travelex Group         Toronto Dominion Bank       Trust & Custody Services Bank         UBS       Unicredit UFJ Bank         Österreichische Volksbanken         Wachovia   Westfalenbank         WestLB   Westpac   WGZ-Bank         Zürcher Kantonalbank

We rely on updates from ECNs to keep this page up to date, and information quickly becomes out of date when updates are infrequent. Some banks choose not to publicise their participation in ECNs. Although the above banks are members of the ECNs, some may not have yet fully connected.