Technology, in particular the rising appeal of using the internet to trade foreign exchange, was identified by all dealers contacted by Reuters as the key threat to their jobs in the coming 12 months. Stands at the conference showing off the new technology, and often manned by former currency traders, only fuelled their insecurity.

"Jobs are going to disappear with this new technology," said Derek Ridout, a delegate from the US who has been working in financial markets for 40 years. "You can get one person doing the job of three and somehow I can't see everyone going into selling the technology."While the $1.5 trillion dollar-per-day foreign exchange market is the biggest market in the world and used to taking on the world's governments in battles over currency rates, dealers have no illusions about what the future has in store for them. The inroads that internet technology has already made in the US retail equity market, the biggest retail equity market in the world and where an estimated 40 per cent of business is done via the internet, is seen as a harbinger of things to come in the foreign exchange business.

In the past, the interbank market hogged the limelight and personalities and long-standing relationships loomed large in the business of shunting billions of dollars a minute around the foreign exchanges. The nature of the game is changing. "Interbank trading has certainly suffered on a staffing basis as the market has become much more sales orientated," Mike Eastaway, vice president of ACI - The Financial Markets Association, the foreign exchange industry's umbrella group, told Reuters."Just a few years ago the split in staffing would have been something like 70-30 in favour of interbank over sales and now it is the other way around and it is mostly good salesmen on demand at present."

Dealers, particularly those at smaller and medium-sized banks, are having to acquire new skills that allow them to delve beyond the spot foreign exchange market and be able to deal with more complex financial instruments such as options. "Things like developments in the internet will lead to changes in the banking environment and job cuts so it obliges many traders and operators in the dealing room to look at developing skills in other areas like options, money-market derivatives and futures," said a dealer from Bayerische Landesbank's Milan office. "The younger generation of traders is probably more open-minded about developing skills that are needed by changes in the financial markets." New technology and the expansion of financial markets to every corner of the world demand the foreign exchange industrykeeps focused on ethics and standards across the market, the industry umbrella group said on Saturday.

The ACI -- the Financial Markets Association recognised at its annual convention on Saturday the pressures that electronic broking, internet trading, bank mergers and the single currency are having on industry staffing,

However, the ACI insisted its priority as an organisation was to ensure its mutating membership was professional in its dealings and that common standards of work apply across the global reach of its national associations. "Despite all the technology developments, it's still the individual who presses the button, it's still the individual who decides the size of the deal and the rate of the deal," said ACI president and Mees Pierson treasury director Heering Ligthart.

"The ACI is about the people in this industry. It's about market practices and ethics and providing a platform for people to exchange ideas and experience."

The ACI currently has more than 24,000 members in 59 countries.Ligthart said the arrival on the scene of internet and intranet trading was a good example of where the ACI should be active in developing the conventions and standards for such a new and potentially hazardous market place. The ACI's global code of conduct, almost 70 per cent complete and due to be finished by Forex 2000 in Paris, will include sections on internet trading. "You can't stop progress but there are still some very big hurdles in the way of internet currency trading and this association can help everyone get over those hurdles," said National Bank of Australia's Mike Eastaway, vice president of the ACI.

The ACI's education programme for dealers is also in the process of being streamlined, partly due to cost constraints. The exam system for junior traders will now centre on basic accreditation qualifications, effectively licenses to deal and settle currency transactions. The ACI also offers diploma and fellowship courses for more experienced dealers. The issue of costs will be dealt with byoutsourcing much of the exam administration, the ACI said.