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Cash FX (spot, forward, simple swaps, cross rates) is almost totally automated. FX options is less automated. Since FX is less capital intensive than rates or credit, there's still a fair bit of old fashioned trading activity there, even among banks that have withdrawn from other FICC & equity areas like UBS.

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Depends on which bank you are talking about :)

You will be surprised at how many places still have spot traders quoting 500K EURUSD rates and assistants running around with pieces of paper..

500k flow ccy spot via voice? I think you are joking. It's easier for a client and a bank just to trade via an electronic platform. The voice trader would likely direct the client to his on screen rates and he would trade there. I suggest anything under 15mn would be traded via screen.

Last time I was on an FX trading floor (2010) clients seeking voice quotes for spot would get a sales person who would be using the sales version of the FX single dealer platform. Sales guy would voice quote the electronic rate made by the auto trading system that was shown in the Java SDP GUI on their desktop. For top clients the spread might be tightened slightly, but most would get the vanilla electronic rate. No human trader would be involved, and there would be no manual price discretion at any point.

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