guy debelle : fx global code keynote address by mr guy debelle, deputy governor of the reserve bank of australia, at fx week usa, new york city, 11 july 2019. * * * thanks to matt boge for all his assistance. today i will talk about the fx global code. 1 i will talk about where we ’ ve come from and where we are going. the code was first published a little over two years ago in may 2017. it is important to remember why the code was needed and why it was produced. why was the code necessary? the foreign exchange ( fx ) industry was suffering from a lack of trust and dysfunction. the public lost trust in the market through the front - page coverage of the scandals that hit the market and the billion dollar fines. this lack of trust was there between participants in the market which was impairing market functioning. the market had to move toward a better place and allow market participants, and the public, to have much greater confidence that the fx market is functioning appropriately. it is also important to remember what the alternative was in the aftermath of the scandals. there was a decent chance that authorities could conclude that a regulatory response was necessary to generate the desired improvement in market structure and conduct. but the code provided the opportunity for a joint public / private sector approach to address the lack of trust and market dysfunction. the code is not regulation. the code sets out global principles of good practice in the fx market to provide a common set of guidance to the market. its aim is to promote the effective functioning of the wholesale fx market. how have we gone on that? in my view the fx market is in a better place than it was a few years ago. that is confirmed by surveys of market participants too. but there is further progress to be made. the process for creating the code was global, coordinated between central banks and the private sector. i was the chair of the group that produced the code, with the great assistance of david puth who led the market participants. at the time the code was launched, a global foreign exchange committee ( gfxc ) was created to maintain the code. i have just been appointed as gfxc chair, taking over from simon potter who did a great job of leading the gfxc and over a number of years has been a major driver of change for the better in the global fx market. the gfxc is a genuinely global committee and the breadth of its reach

, and the relevance of a lot of the information contained in them. in each of these areas, the report provided guidance to market participants on what characteristics they should be looking for when using disclosures and when they are writing them. some of the disclosures in the market clearly conform to the principles articulated in the code, but some very much push the boundaries. personally, i am concerned about the disclosures which take the form of ‘ as long as i warn you, then i can do whatever i want when i want when i am dealing with you ’ – what might be termed full caveat emptor disclosures. in my view, these type of disclosures are not in the spirit of the code in helping move the market to a better place. the challenges around ensuring sufficient transparency on trading capacities and behaviours are particularly acute on anonymous trading platforms. the gfxc is doing further work to bring about greater understanding of how information flows across these platforms, and what roles the different participants play, be they liquidity providers, prime brokers or the platforms themselves. in describing particular areas of the market and the different trading arrangements that may exist, the gfxc has highlighted how the principles of the code are relevant to these practices. the reports produced by the working groups have been written with that purpose in mind. another way of highlighting the applicability of the code ’ s principles to different settings is through short illustrative examples. the annex to the code includes around 50 such examples covering a wide range of scenarios. the gfxc will continue to add to the initial suite of examples where it believes it is useful to do so. while these examples and the reports published by the gfxc do not form part of the code, they are intended to assist market participants when thinking about how the code applies to their activities. over the period ahead, we will be looking at adding more material like these reports that help to flesh out the principles. as many of you would be aware, the gfxc encourages market participants to sign a statement of commitment to the global code as a public demonstration of their intention to adhere to the code ’ s principles. there are numerous public registers on which market participants can post their statements. on the gfxc website, an index now allows you to search across all of these registers. 4 i would 2 / 4 bis central bankers'speeches encourage everyone in the market to have a look at that index. as it