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Regulator gives SMX provisional go-ahead for Q1 launch
23 February 2010
Singapore Mercantile Exchange, the fledgling commodities bourse, received in-principle regulatory clearance from the Singaporean markets regulator in early December. It hopes to begin trading in the first quarter. The bourse, which completed go-live testing in October, had hoped to launch before the end of 2009
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Singapore Mercantile Exchange
SMX
Financial Technologies
Singapore
The bourse suffered a setback in October, when John Mathias
– hired from Merrill Lynch as chief business officer – resigned less than a
year into his new job.
While the exchange has yet to confirm a suite of products
for launch, it hopes to offer some 30 contracts across asset classes including
precious and base metals, energy, agriculture, currency pairs and commodity
indices.
“We hope to launch with at least one contract in each asset
class,” a spokesperson said. “It depends on what the market wants. They’ve got
nine approved already, but there are others in the pipeline.”
SMX aims to synchronise derivatives and physical trading in
commodities in the Asian time zone, while offering new derivatives products
necessary for effective risk management in Asia.
It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Financial Technologies
(India), which has successfully established and manages 10 exchanges – five in
India, and one each in Dubai, Singapore, Africa, Mauritius, and Bahrain.
Financial Technologies has so far invested some S$75m ($54m)
in SMX, which has 30 members.