Average daily turnover in UK foreign exchange markets rose to a record $2.191 trillion in April, keeping intact London’s status as the world’s largest FX market, according to the Bank of England.

The increase in UK turnover was driven by a 32 percent rise in spot transactions to $919 billion and a 19 percent increase in FX swaps to $909 billion.

In North America, the average daily turnover in over-the-counter foreign exchange instruments hit a record $799 billion in April, a survey conducted by the New York Federal Reserve-sponsored Foreign Exchange Committee showed.

That was a 3.5 percent increase from the last survey done in October 2010.

The increase in daily volume in North America was driven by a rise in outright forward, swaps, and foreign exchange options, expanding by $13 billion, $17 billion, and $7 billion, respectively. That offsets a decline in average daily volume in spot transactions of $10 billion, the survey showed.

The dollar kept its role as the most actively traded currency, although its share in both the UK and North American markets slipped a touch.

Dollar/euro was the most traded currency pair in the UK market at 33.5 percent, although it fell slightly from October 2010.

In North American market, reported turnover in euro/dollar accounts for 31 percent, also the highest share of turnover by currency pair.

A separate survey from the Singapore Foreign Exchange Market Committee showed average daily reported traditional turnover in Singapore rose 12.9 percent in the six months from October 2010 to $314 billion. The increase was largely driven by a rise in spot and FX swaps transactions.

In the Japanese market, a slight rise in spot transactions helped lift average daily turnover to $284.6 billion in April from $263.6 billion in the same month last year. FX options transactions fell during the period.

Japan participates in the global survey once a year, compared with twice for the other major central banks.

Trades executed on electronic systems nearly doubled at the inter-bank level, while also rising significantly for customer transactions.

Broken down by currency pair, overall transactions for all major currencies versus the dollar rose, while turnover in the dollar and euro versus the yen decreased.

The Australian market reported an average daily turnover of $219.1 billion in April, up around 12 percent from October 2010, largely due to a jump in transactions for outright forward, FX swaps and options.