By Patrick Jonas

TWO years ago when I interviewed him for the tabla! talk column, chairman and group CEO of Financial Technologies Jignesh Shah spelt out his Singapore dream.

"We are doing an international story from Singapore... this is going to be an exchange in commodities and derivatives."

On Aug 31, his dream came true when the Singapore Mercantile Exchange (SMX), of which he is the vice-chairman, went live.

The exchange commenced operations on its cutting-edge electronic trading platform with the deputy managing director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore Ong Chong Tee sounding the gong at 10am.

In his keynote address at the function held at the Shangri-La, Mr Ong said: "We welcome players with a vision, commitment and strong fundamentals to set up businesses that will usher in developments in new fields and support growth and development of the markets."

There can be no better player with a vision in this field than Mr Shah. In 1995 with Rs5 lakhs he and three friends set up Financial Technologies in a 265 sq ft office in Mumbai. The company got its big break when it got a licence to set up the Multi-Commodity Exchange in 2003 in Mumbai. Today it commands about 80 per cent of India's futures market and Mr Shah's company now operates 10 exchanges. Financial Technologies' net profit increased by 120 per cent to Rs45.15 crores (for the quarter ended June 30).

After his "international story" became a reality in Singapore, Mr Shah told tabla! that the new exchange is attracting global attention.

"Anybody who wants to hedge the global price risk management will use this wherever they are. It is an international exchange and it will attract international participation. People are showing interest from across the world."

High commissioner of India in Singapore T.C.A. Raghavan is confident of the exchange's success.

He said at the launch: "The excellent infrastructure and skilled managerial and technical workforce in Singapore, along with Financial Technologies' leadership in establishing exchanges, gives SMX a great head start in making this venture a success."

The four SMX futures contracts launched on the first day of trading on its platform include two leading crude oil benchmarks - euro-denominated Brent Crude and West Texas Intermediate (WTI), a currency pair - euro-US dollar currency futures contract and the first gold futures contract in Singapore to be settled via physical delivery.

At a press conference after the exchange went live, SMX chief executive Thomas McMahon said that two more currency contracts - US$-Australian dollar and US$-Japanese yen - will be launched later.

-tabla!