The head of the world's largest broker for foreign exchange on Tuesday said it had conducted tests to see if its FX trading systems could effectively quote and trade all 17 legacy euro zone currencies should any of them leave the common unit. There is growing speculation that the euro currency could suffer some degree of break-up as European leaders struggle to help weak euro zone countries deal with their debt problems.
ICAP CEO David Rutter told Reuters the company had tested the euro currencies on its EBS electronic currency trading platform to make sure it can handle trading flows in these units versus the dollar and a modified euro. "Chatter in the market and the discussions with our customers have increased significantly about other pairs, so we've taken additional steps to test the remaining currency pairs as well," Rutter told Reuters in a telephone interview from New York.