Singapore has unveiled plans for a new international commodities derivatives exchange.
The Singapore Mercantile Exchange (SMX) was announced at the Global Financial Market Summit 2008 by Lim Hng Kiang, minister of trade and industry and deputy chairman of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), and Jignesh Shah, chairman and CEO of Financial Technologies.
The electronic trading platform will offer trading for a diversified basket of commodities, including futures and options contracts on precious metals, base metals, agricultural commodities, currencies and commodity indices.
The exchange is currently in the process of obtaining the regulatory approval from the MAS. Once approved, dealers, brokers and their customers will be able to connect to SMX’s trading platform through a number of connectivity options, either with the native front-end provided by the SMX or one developed by an independent software vendor.
SMX will also act as the counterparty for transactions, through settlement guarantees provided by its clearing house, the Singapore Mercantile Exchange Clearing Corporation, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Singapore Mercantile Exchange.
Shah also announced the board and advisory board of SMX, which will be chaired by Ang Swee Tian, former president of the Singapore Exchange.
“Financial markets and commodity markets are very tightly coupled,” said Tian, in a statement. “The new exchange will add to the stature of Singapore as global financial centre and more investments will flow into Singapore, as it becomes a one-stop financial and trading hub.”