# Marco Grotteria and Alex Kontoghiorghes argue in a Bank of England paper that synthetic dollar funding has many prices [Canonical reading](https://escapemeridian.com/readings/marco-grotteria-and-alex-kontoghiorghes-argue-in-a-bank-of-c501f1b2) Published on 18 September 2026, Marco Grotteria and Alex Kontoghiorghes ask whether the price of synthetic dollar funding depends on which dealer handles a trade. They compare FX forwards in the same dollar currency pair, half-hour and maturity bucket to isolate dealer-specific prices. The authors report substantial variation across dealers and over time, and say dealers charge more for buying dollars forward than for selling them; the gap is wider at maturities under one month. They report that this asymmetry remains after accounting for client-dealer relationships and trade characteristics. Differences in funding costs explain little of the price dispersion. The paper concludes that synthetic dollar funding has many prices, reflecting dealer clientele and pricing power more than underlying funding conditions. The Bank of England says its staff working papers present research in progress to encourage comments and debate. Headline and summary by Escape Meridian, prepared by Luna from the attributed source. A source check is not independent confirmation of the source’s claims. ## Original source Bank of England · Article Original source date: Sep 18, 2026 (2026-09-18T13:00:00.000Z). Date basis: Date supplied by the publisher’s feed. Added to Escape Meridian: 2026-11-05T17:43:23.307Z. First observed: 2026-10-24T00:33:41.831Z. Retrieved: 2026-10-24T00:35:35.905Z. - [One dollar, many prices: dealer-specific pricing of synthetic dollar funding](https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/working-paper/2026/one-dollar-many-prices-dealer-specific-pricing-of-synthetic-dollar-funding) ## Limits Text as retrieved on October 24, 2026; originally published September 18, 2026. The Bank of England describes staff working papers as research in progress intended to encourage comments and debate. ## Open question How much of the dealer-specific price differences reflects dealer clientele, and how much reflects pricing power? ## Source-stated Grotteria and Kontoghiorghes compare FX forwards matched by dollar currency pair, half-hour and maturity bucket to isolate dealer-specific pricing, and report substantial variation. > These dealer-specific prices vary substantially: their standard deviation is about 4 basis points per year, and the large dispersion is present both across dealers at a point in time and over time for a given dealer. - [Supporting source](https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/working-paper/2026/one-dollar-many-prices-dealer-specific-pricing-of-synthetic-dollar-funding) ## Source-stated The authors report an asymmetry between buying and selling dollars forward, with a wider gap at maturities under one month. > Dealers charge 2.5 basis points more for buying dollars forward than for selling them, and the gap widens to 11.8 basis points at maturities under one month. - [Supporting source](https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/working-paper/2026/one-dollar-many-prices-dealer-specific-pricing-of-synthetic-dollar-funding) ## Source-stated The authors say the asymmetry persists after controls, funding costs account for little of the dispersion, and dealer clientele and pricing power are more influential than underlying funding conditions. > The asymmetry survives controls for client-dealer relationships and trade characteristics. Differences in funding costs account for little of the observed price dispersion. Synthetic dollar funding therefore has many prices, reflecting dealer clientele and pricing power more than underlying funding - [Supporting source](https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/working-paper/2026/one-dollar-many-prices-dealer-specific-pricing-of-synthetic-dollar-funding) ## Source and contributor context Bank of England · Publisher The publisher is identified here. No individual author has been inferred. ## Source media Media retrieval status: unchecked. ## Terms and references Reference context selected by Escape Meridian; separate from source evidence. Entity mentions do not establish authorship, involvement or endorsement. ## TIME TIME is a news magazine publishing reporting on world affairs, business, technology and the workers behind digital services. - [Explore this context](/entities/time) - [Reference](https://time.com/) ## Editorial provenance Version 1. Publication ID: 3fd738ac-74af-ab47-bd4f-52c7014bc78a. Prepared by openai/gpt-6-luna; grounding review by anthropic/claude-opus-5.5. Source check: uncertain by anthropic/claude-opus-5.5 on 2026-11-05T17:38:42.451Z. This checks fidelity to the source, not whether its claims are independently true. Editorial selection: accept; reasons: bridge\_admitted\_by\_model. Observation: 323c18f70f2aa3d9f176f1ba63e11ab24d2173a9d0d4d7beb09db5799ef00d96. Source text hash: ca90f9eb5bf6635ccdc2456d81dee1a31898856508178dc2bae57ad7bea17ba9. ## Revision and source-check history ### Version 1 — 2026-11-05T17:43:23.307Z Published on 18 September 2026, Marco Grotteria and Alex Kontoghiorghes ask whether the price of synthetic dollar funding depends on which dealer handles a trade. They compare FX forwards in the same dollar currency pair, half-hour and maturity bucket to isolate dealer-specific prices. The authors report substantial variation across dealers and over time, and say dealers charge more for buying dollars forward than for selling them; the gap is wider at maturities under one month. They report that this asymmetry remains after accounting for client-dealer relationships and trade characteristics. Differences in funding costs explain little of the price dispersion. The paper concludes that synthetic dollar funding has many prices, reflecting dealer clientele and pricing power more than underlying funding conditions. The Bank of England says its staff working papers present research in progress to encourage comments and debate. ## Original source Bank of England · Article Original source date: Sep 18, 2026 (2026-09-18T13:00:00.000Z). Date basis: Date supplied by the publisher’s feed. Added to Escape Meridian: 2026-11-05T17:43:23.307Z. First observed: 2026-10-24T00:33:41.831Z. Retrieved: 2026-10-24T00:35:35.905Z. - [One dollar, many prices: dealer-specific pricing of synthetic dollar funding](https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/working-paper/2026/one-dollar-many-prices-dealer-specific-pricing-of-synthetic-dollar-funding) ## Limits Text as retrieved on October 24, 2026; originally published September 18, 2026. The Bank of England describes staff working papers as research in progress intended to encourage comments and debate. ## Open question How much of the dealer-specific price differences reflects dealer clientele, and how much reflects pricing power? ## Source-stated Grotteria and Kontoghiorghes compare FX forwards matched by dollar currency pair, half-hour and maturity bucket to isolate dealer-specific pricing, and report substantial variation. > These dealer-specific prices vary substantially: their standard deviation is about 4 basis points per year, and the large dispersion is present both across dealers at a point in time and over time for a given dealer. - [Supporting source](https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/working-paper/2026/one-dollar-many-prices-dealer-specific-pricing-of-synthetic-dollar-funding) ## Source-stated The authors report an asymmetry between buying and selling dollars forward, with a wider gap at maturities under one month. > Dealers charge 2.5 basis points more for buying dollars forward than for selling them, and the gap widens to 11.8 basis points at maturities under one month. - [Supporting source](https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/working-paper/2026/one-dollar-many-prices-dealer-specific-pricing-of-synthetic-dollar-funding) ## Source-stated The authors say the asymmetry persists after controls, funding costs account for little of the dispersion, and dealer clientele and pricing power are more influential than underlying funding conditions. > The asymmetry survives controls for client-dealer relationships and trade characteristics. Differences in funding costs account for little of the observed price dispersion. Synthetic dollar funding therefore has many prices, reflecting dealer clientele and pricing power more than underlying funding - [Supporting source](https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/working-paper/2026/one-dollar-many-prices-dealer-specific-pricing-of-synthetic-dollar-funding) ## Source and contributor context Bank of England · Publisher The publisher is identified here. No individual author has been inferred. ## Source media Media retrieval status: unchecked. ## Terms and references Reference context selected by Escape Meridian; separate from source evidence. Entity mentions do not establish authorship, involvement or endorsement. ## TIME TIME is a news magazine publishing reporting on world affairs, business, technology and the workers behind digital services. - [Explore this context](/entities/time) - [Reference](https://time.com/) ## Editorial provenance Version 1. Publication ID: 3fd738ac-74af-ab47-bd4f-52c7014bc78a. Prepared by openai/gpt-6-luna; grounding review by anthropic/claude-opus-5.5. Source check: uncertain by anthropic/claude-opus-5.5 on 2026-11-05T17:38:42.451Z. This checks fidelity to the source, not whether its claims are independently true. Editorial selection: accept; reasons: bridge\_admitted\_by\_model. Observation: 323c18f70f2aa3d9f176f1ba63e11ab24d2173a9d0d4d7beb09db5799ef00d96. Source text hash: ca90f9eb5bf6635ccdc2456d81dee1a31898856508178dc2bae57ad7bea17ba9. ### uncertain — 2026-11-05T17:38:42.451Z — anthropic/claude-opus-5.5 Publication: 3fd738ac-74af-ab47-bd4f-52c7014bc78a attribution — pass: The reading correctly attributes the paper to Marco Grotteria and Alex Kontoghiorghes as Bank of England Staff Working Paper No. 1,207. Findings stay framed as the authors' reported results, and the Bank's research-in-progress caveat is attributed to the Bank. > Staff Working Paper No. 1,207 Marco Grotteria and Alex Kontoghiorghes summary — uncertain: The summary is faithful to the abstract, but it would be hard for a non-specialist to follow. Central terms such as synthetic dollar funding, FX forwards, dealer, maturity bucket and basis points are not explained, and the definitions list is empty. The reading also omits the magnitudes (about 4 bp standard deviation, 2.5 bp asymmetry, 11.8 bp under one month) and does not say in plain terms why dealer-specific pricing matters. Smallest repair: add plain-language glosses or term-library tooltips for these terms and restore the reported figures. > Does the price of synthetic dollar funding depend on which dealer intermediates the trade? date — pass: The page dateline of 18 September 2026 matches originalPublished (2026-09-18 UTC), and the reading states it at day precision. Sidebar listings dated October 2026 are later page additions that the reading neither uses nor relies on. This is a publisher page, so no archive disclosure is needed. > Published on 18 September 2026 support — pass: Each claim is directly stated in the abstract and kept attributed. The question about separating clientele from pricing power follows from the paper's stated conclusion, which groups the two together, without assuming an answer. No unsupported benefits, costs or forecasts are added. > Synthetic dollar funding therefore has many prices, reflecting dealer clientele and pricing power more than underlying funding conditions. media — pass: No media was selected and no verified media candidates were supplied, so there is no media identity or relevance issue. ## Recorded references Explicit citations in public readings and public file attachments to this reading. Shared topics are not citations. Other artifact types need an explicit reference adapter. No public references recorded here yet. [Reference data (JSON)](/readings/c501f1b263980d458323a3fb70d5fc3c0fc964b43e25460f811aaaa16a2e2f0c/references.json) ## Corrections and challenges [Send a correction or an opposing source](https://escapemeridian.com/corrections/) [JSON record](https://escapemeridian.com/readings/marco-grotteria-and-alex-kontoghiorghes-argue-in-a-bank-of-c501f1b2.json)