FMC directs bourses to seek nod before imposing addtnl margins

Forward Markets Commission (FMC) today directed national commodities bourses to seek prior regulatory permission before imposing additional deposit money requirements.
In a directive issued to national exchanges, FMC said: "The imposition of regulatory measures, like special margin/additional margin by the national exchanges at their discretion is observed to be creating lack of uniformity in the regulatory measures across the national exchanges.
"Hence, the National Exchanges are hereby directed to seek prior approval of the Commission before imposing additional/special margin," it said.
Commodities exchanges collect different types of margins (deposit money) by brokers and clients to avoid possibility of payment crisis in a falling market.

Market players are allowed to build up large speculative positions on payment of only part of the total transaction cost in the form of upfront or initial margin and additional margin, depending upon the trend in the market.
Special margins are usually imposed to check speculative activity in commodities trading.
There are four national commodities exchanges -- MCX, NCDEX, NMCE and ACE -- operating in the country.