LME modifying technology to allow for multiple contract launches this year

(MB) The London Metal Exchange is modifying its technology to allow it to launch multiple contracts at once, something it plans to do at the end of the year, according to the exchange’s chief executive officer (CEO). Matthew Chamberlain said that the move, designed to add a level of dynamism to the LME’s systems, would delink the launch of new contracts from the release of new technology. The exchange is then aiming to launch up to six contracts in one go by year-end, dependent on regulatory approvals and the readiness of members, he told Metal Bulletin in an interview. “From a technological implementation perspective, what we’re doing is updating our systems such that they can be dynamic, so we don’t have to introduce new contracts as part of a systems release – instead we can just do it by adding the contracts in, which is what a lot of our competitors can do,” he said. “The big piece of work this year is to make the systems dynamic in that way. What we want to do is to delink the launching of contracts from technology,” he added..