IDEAglobal Tops 1st Quarter Currency Survey

By Wendy Soong

April 3 (Bloomberg) -- IDEAglobal was the most accurate forecaster of exchange rates in the first quarter of 2008, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The bank's margin of error was 2.996 percent.

At the end of the fourth quarter last year, Bloomberg News asked for predictions for euro-dollar, dollar-yen, euro-yen, British pound-dollar, euro-British pound, euro-Swiss franc, dollar-Swiss franc and dollar-Canadian dollar exchange rates for the close of the first quarter. The forecasts were compared with March 31 closing prices in New York to calculate an average margin of error.

     A table of rankings follows:
*T
                          Average Error

IDEAglobal                   2.996
RBS Global Banking           3.615
Citigroup                    4.106
TD Securities*               4.176
J.P. Morgan Chase            4.183
Danske Bank*                 4.362
Scotia Capital               4.400
ING                          4.711
Morgan Stanley               4.937
BNP Paribas                  5.057
Lehman Brothers              5.211
Mizuho Corporate*            5.324
Merrill Lynch                5.368
Alpha Bank*                  5.474
National Australia           5.507
Calyon                       5.536
Bank Tokyo Mitsub            5.572
Goldman Sachs                5.630
Barclays Capital             5.702
UBS                          5.718
ANZ Bank                     5.792
CIBC                         5.810
Wachovia                     5.865
Rabobank                     5.960
Deutsche Bank                6.236
Commonwealth Bk              6.240
Bank of America              6.502
AC Markets                   6.975
ECU Group*                   7.192
4Cast*                       7.408
ABN Amro Bank                8.209
Dresdner Kleinwort           8.563

* - Did not provide forecasts for all currencies.