Forex settlement volumes surge in January -CLS

LONDON Feb 2 (Reuters) - The average number of daily foreign exchange payment instructions surged to its second highest on record in January, data from FX settlement system CLS Bank showed on Monday.

The average daily volume in January was 718,917, up 13.9 percent from the previous month, and up 39.5 percent year-on-year.

The volume rose due to a pick-up in low value, high frequency trading, traders said. It was the highest since a record 727,934 in October 2008 in the wake of the collapse of Lehman Brothers.

The average daily value for January was $3.92 trillion, up 0.4 percent from December, and up 33.2 percent from the same period a year ago.

In addition to 59 CLS Bank members, a total of 6,472 participants currently use the CLS Bank service including banks, corporates and non-bank financial institutions, and a further 6,019 investment funds. (Reporting by Tamawa Desai; Editing by Andy Bruce)