Interbank

The interbank is the global network of major banks that trade currencies directly with each other at wholesale rates. It sits at the top of the forex market structure and sets the prices that cascade down to brokers, institutions, and retail traders.

Interbank trades are large, typically starting at $1 million per transaction and often running into the hundreds of millions. Banks trade with each other to manage their own foreign exchange exposure, facilitate client orders, and take proprietary positions. The rates quoted between banks, especially the top-tier liquidity providers like JPMorgan, Citi, UBS, and Deutsche Bank, become the reference price for the entire market. Retail brokers access interbank liquidity through prime brokers and aggregation platforms, then add a spread before passing quotes to retail traders.

For example, if the true interbank price for EUR/USD is 1.0850 on the bid and 1.08505 on the ask, a retail broker might add a 0.5 pip markup and quote 1.0850 / 1.08510 to clients. That half-pip spread multiplied across millions of trades is how brokers earn revenue. On a standard lot, a 1 pip spread costs about $10, which is why tighter-spread brokers tend to be preferred by active traders and copy trading systems.

In copy trading, the interbank rate is where pricing originates before flowing down to retail accounts through broker markups. SteadyFlowFX's recommended broker partners provide competitive access to interbank pricing across the 6 traded pairs, keeping the spread gap between master and subscriber fills as narrow as possible. Understanding the interbank layer helps subscribers see why broker selection has a direct and measurable impact on copy trading performance.