From correspondents in Delhi, India, 10:13 PM IST

Deputy Chairman of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr. Lim Hng Kiang was the Guest of Honour at the Global Financial Market Summit 2008 where plans were announced to set up Singapore Mercantile Exchange (SMX), a new international commodity derivatives exchange in Singapore. The announcement was made in a glittering ceremony by Mr. Jignesh Shah, Chairman and CEO of Financial Technologies along with Mr. Lim Hng Kiang and Mr. Ang Swee Tian, former president of SGX and Mr. Leo Melamed, Chairman Emeritus of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) Group in presence of an august gathering of business leaders from across the globe.

Said Mr. Lim Hng Kiang, Deputy Chairman of the MAS and Minister of Trade and Industry, “The Financial Technologies Group’s interest to establish SMX in Singapore, within close proximity to the region’s largest producers and consumers of several commodities, underscores Singapore's position as a key commodities trading hub.”

Mr. Jignesh Shah, Chairman and CEO of Financial Technologies also announced Board and Advisory Board of SMX comprising of eminent and highly distinguished personalities from the world of finance including –

1. Mr. Ang Swee Tian – Chairman of the Board.
   • Former president of SGX
   • Inducted in the FIA Futures Hall of Fame in 2007.
2. Mr. Jignesh Shah – Vice Chairman
   • Chairman and CEO of Financial Technologies
   • Founder of Financial Technologies (India) Limited that promoted SMX - Singapore, MCX, DGCX – Dubai, GBOT – Mauritius, IEX among several other exchanges.
   • 'Young Global Leader' by the World Economic Forum (WEF) and Ernst & Young ‘Entrepreneur of the Year' award for Business Transformation
3. Mr. Vijay Iyengar –Board Member
   • Chairman of SICCI and MD of Agrocorp International Pte Ltd,
4. Mr. Framroze Pochara – Board Member
   • Executive Director of SMX Clearing Corporation

Advisory Board members include -

1. Mr. Leo Melamed – Chairman of Advisory Board

· Chairman Emeritus of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange

(CME) Group and globally recognised as the founder

of financial futures markets

1. Mr. Myron Scholes – Member, Advisory Board

· Nobel Memorial Prize winner for Black-Scholes options pricing model

1. Mr. David Yeow – Member, Advisory Board

· Partner, Rajah and Tann, LLP

1. Mr. John Burbank – Member, Advisory Board

· Founder & Chief Investment Officer, Passport Capital LLC

Mr. Ang Swee Tian, Chairman of SMX said “This is a truly eventful day for Singapore. Financial markets and commodity markets are very tightly coupled. 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.”

Mr. Jignesh Shah, Vice Chairman of SMX, Chairman and Group CEO of Financial Technologies, said, “Singapore ranks among the top three international financial centres in the world today along with New York and London with an established trading and commodity hub, open economy, robust regulatory framework under Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), a thriving port, business friendly environment, and its geographical location – making it an ideal destination to host an international commodity derivatives exchange like SMX. Also markets are the barometer of growth for any economy and SMX will be the growth engine for Asia from Singapore with rest of the world – through transparent price discovery, efficient transaction execution, price volatility, risk hedging and will propagate structured private and public investment deep into the economy”.

The Chairman of the Advisory Board of SMX Mr. Leo Melamed, said, “I amvery pleased to be associated with this path breaking initiative of the Financial Technologies in Singapore. We expect Asia to lead the growth in the commodities markets in the next few years. Market participants around the world will benefit from price discovery of these commodities in Asia. The SMX will be a barometer for the dynamic demand-supply fundamentals in this region.

Mr. Chong Lit Cheong, Chief Executive Officer of International Enterprise (IE) Singapore said, “SMX's entry into Singapore is a welcomed development by IE Singapore as it complements our ongoing efforts to develop Singapore as the Asian commodity trading hub. Already, Singapore is Asia's price discovery centre for energy and rubber. With growing investor interest in commodity derivatives as well as increasing focus on risk management due to volatile commodity prices, SMX will reinforce the commodity trading and risk management infrastructure in Singapore.”

The announcement was made at the ‘Global Financial Markets Summit 2008: A CEO discussion forum exploring Asia’s commodity derivatives markets’, organized by Financial Technologies Group and FOW and supported by International Enterprise (IE) Singapore and held at the Mandarin Oriental Singapore today.

SMX will facilitate commodities trading in the Asian time zone and reflect the vibrancy of Asian markets. The new exchange will provide a platform for futures and options trading on precious metals, base metals, energy, agricultural commodities, currency pairs, carbon credits and commodity indices. Though many commodity exchanges exist in the Western world, no such international commodity exchange, trading a diversified range of products on a single platform exists in Asia. SMX will fulfil this need of a global exchange in Asia.

SMX is promoted by Financial Technologies (www.ftindia.com) a US$1.84 billion (as on 31st March 2008) global leader in creating and operating technology centric, next generation financial markets. Financial Technologies has successful track record of operating deep, vibrant and liquid exchange network in Middle East and India.

Source: Press Release Distribution via India PRwire