Singapore, 3 May 2010

Singapore’s first pan-Asian multi-product commodity derivatives exchange Singapore Mercantile Exchange, (SMX), have announced that the exchange will go live in August 2010 on its state-of-the-art electronic trading platform. The aim to provide a wide range of commodity derivatives generic to Asian trade flows.

In the preceding months of June and July, SMX will be conducting conformance testing with the ISVs and industry wide testing with member firms prior to commencing trading operations in August.

Thomas McMahon, CEO, SMX said, “With the much anticipated advent of the launch of the Exchange, SMX will look to create an Asian liquidity pool by facilitating trading on a single exchange. The global financial markets will reap the benefit of efficient use of collaterals in a centralised trading and clearing structure. SMX, being a pan-Asian exchange based in the reputed International Financial Center of Singapore will enable efficient cross-border markets and price discovery in the Asian time zone and will look to establish benchmark pricings in the East.”

SMX, as a Singapore based entity, will be regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). SMX’s long-term strategy of a ‘one-stop comprehensive product-range exchange’ will encompass all physical and derivative commodity players during pan-Asian trading hours. SMX will offer a basket of commodities including bullion, base metals, energy, grains and soft agricultural produce, commodity indices, currencies and oil, as well as other financial instruments on its trading platform.

SMX is a wholly owned subsidiary of Financial Technologies (FT), a market leader in technology solutions with domain expertise across different asset classes. FT is an established company which manages 10 exchanges in India, Dubai, Singapore, Africa, the Mauritius, Bahrain, and six ecosystem ventures. FT’s proprietary platform technology engages assured independence from third party clearing and matching technology providers.

Jignesh Shah, Chairman and Group CEO, Financial Technologies Group said, “Asia is among the fastest growing regions in the world and expected to continue to grow annually at 6% to 10% over next 25 years. Financial Technologies Group is perhaps the first company in the history of modern civilization to successfully set-up three green field regulated exchanges in Singapore, Mauritius and Bahrain from ground-up which would go live in 2010.

The scale of the vision is based on the ‘spice and silk routes’ that used to connect trading and financial communities from Africa, Middle East, India and Asia centuries ago with the rest of the world. These three economies are ranked among the top International Financial Centers and equivalent to ‘New York, London and Tokyo’ of Asia, Middle East and Africa – the fastest growing economies in the world. Financial Technologies Group is singularly positioned to proxy the growth of these economies”

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