Singapore announces commodities exchange

Trading technology company Financial Technologies Group is to launch a Singapore-based commodities exchange, it has announced.

The Singapore Mercantile Exchange (SMX) will trade futures and options on precious metals, base metals, energy, agricultural commodities, currency pairs, carbon credits and commodity indices in the Asian time zone.

“The Financial Technologies Group’s interest to establish SMX in Singapore, with close proximity to the region’s largest producers and consumers of several commodities, underscores Singapore’s position as a key commodities trading hub,” Lim Hng Kiang, the deputy chairman of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and minister of Trade and Industry said in a statement to the press.

The former president of the Singapore Exchange (SGX), Ang Swee Tian, will become chairman of the SMX board, while Jignesh Shah, the chairman and chief executive officer of Financial Technologies will take the role of vice chairman.

The SMX is currently in the process of obtaining regulatory approval from the MAS. Participants will be able to connect to the SMX’s electronic trading platform through leased lines, dial-up, multi-protocol label switching and the internet.