Stricter FMC norm for commex boards

The Forward Markets Commission, the commodity futures market regulator, issued new guidelines on Friday. These aim to strengthen corporate governance at commodity exchanges. It has asked these exchanges to limit representation on their boards by category of shareholders.

The directive says, "Anchor investors shall not have representation on the board more than (their) proportion of equity, which should be cut to 26 per cent from the fifth year of the exchange's operation."

Government companies' and stock/ commodity exchanges' representation shall not be less than half the board's size, with a restriction on the number of shareholders. All six commodity exchanges have been asked to restructure their board on the new norms by the end of this month.