Sebi puts rider for commodity derivative reforms

Asks comexes to strengthen risk management before introducing options and allowing banks, MFs

At an event here, P K Bindish, chief general manger at the regulatory body, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), said: “We want the commodity futures market to bring risk management at par with the equity market before allowing new instruments and a new set of participants for hedging on commexes.”

This implies Sebi might not allow instruments like options and indices to trade on a commodity exchange till these mitigation facilities are in place. While the commexes claim to already have a strong risk management system already in place, the recent suspension of castor seed futures by the National Commodity & Derivatives Exchange (NCDEX) has restirred the issue. And, before the castor issue, NCDEX had to impose nearly a 100 per cent margin in chana (chickpea) trade.

Sebi chairman U K Sinha had said last September at the time of absorbing the erstwhile regulator, the Forward Markets Commission, that new instruments and participants would be allowed on commexes in only a few months. He'd indicated that participants such as banks, financial institutions and institutional investors would be allowed for hedging their commodities’ price risk.

Since then, however, Sebi has issued new regulations and tightened the grip on commodity traders, reducing circuit limits and the open interest leeway, to narrow the price hedging potential. And, suspended the forwards segment in commodity trade, the bridge between spot and futures.

Separately, Sebi is in talks with the Warehousing Development and Regulatory Authority for a better system. Entry and exit of commodities in WDRA-accredited warehouses are being currently monitored by commexes.

“The commodity futures market is driven by a very few participants. General investors remain away from commodity futures, except bullion. So, the commodities futures market needs to be driven by systems,” said Bindish on Thursday. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had recently issued an advisory to banks, to ask their respective agri commodity clients for hedging of risk. “There has been no progress thereafter. Existing law does not permit banks to hedge their price risk on commodity exchanges,” said Deepak Mohanty, executive director at RBI.