Volumes traded rose to $87.5 billion from $71 billion in December when volumes usually drop because of holidays. Despite the rise from a month ago, volumes are down 38 percent compared with $141.3 billion in January 2013.

Part of the reason for the surge in trading in January last year was because investors were busy selling the yen and buying the dollar and the euro as they positioned for massive monetary stimulus from the Bank of Japan.

EBS, which competes with Thomson Reuters in the FX dealing business, is the leading liquidity provider for the most widely traded currencies - the euro, yen and Swiss franc.

Thomson Reuters is strong in 'Commonwealth' currencies such as the British pound and the Australian, Canadian and New Zealand dollars.

Volumes on foreign exchange markets have fallen in recent months due to the relative stability of major currencies, with EBS in particular hit by low volatility in the euro and the yen against the dollar.

(Reporting by Anirban Nag; Editing by Hugh Lawson)

Stocks treated in this article : Thomson Reuters Corporation, ICAP plc