A 12-month-old online foreign exchange platform run by Deutsche Bank has seen a surge of interest from retail investors, accounting for almost a third of forex revenues on the bank’s dbFX.com’s system.

The German bank said its dbFX.com’s managed accounts system makes up 30 per cent of revenue and almost 20 per cent of dbFX.com’s total client base, which Deutsche hopes to double by the end of this year. The platform offers dealing in a total of 34 currency pairs.

Currency trading has become increasingly accessible to private traders and investors in recent years, encouraged by developments such as spread-betting accounts and enthusiasm for alternative assets away from equities and bonds.

Barclays Stockbrokers, for example, has set up a leveraged spot foreign exchange trading service which uses the Barclays Capital's trading system, BARX, for 19 of the world’s most liquid currency pairs such as euro-dollar and dollar-yen. Meanwhile, 3D Currency Management, a London-based company, is launching a new fund inspired by increased interest in foreign exchange as an asset class. The Protected Capital Currency Fund uses a capital protected structure to reassure investors.

In its statement on the dbFX.com system, Deutsche said research demonstrates that currency trading portfolios offer investors a chance to diversify risks as forex has a low correlation to the performance of bond and equity markets – a highly attractive proposition amid the current financial turmoil.

“Over the last few months, the forex market as a whole has been especially active resulting in increased trading volumes. This trend has also been evidenced with dbFX. During October alone, dbFX trading volumes were more than 200 per cent higher than the 2008 weekly average and our managed accounts programme greatly contributed to this,” said Betsy Waters, global director of dbFX.

With dbFX, money managers focus on trading while dbFX handles back office support. Clients also get access to a large trading platform, Deutsche Bank research and access to funds without lockup provisions.