Financial Tech's Bahrain Fin Exchange goes live

Mumbai, Nov 23 (PTI) Financial Technologies has said its Bahrain venture, the Bahrain Financial Exchange (BFX), the first multi-asset exchange in the Middle East and North Africa region, commenced live trading today. Following the successful launch of its Islamic division (Bait al Bursa) in February 2011, the BFX began operations of its conventional division today, an exchange statement said here. "Bahrain being the oldest financial centre in the Gulf region and a globally leading centre for Islamic finance is the ideal location for an international multi-asset exchange like the BFX which offers products in both Islamic and conventional finance accessible to the trading community across the globe," FT Group chairman Jignesh Shah said. The launch is in line with the strategy to establish the BFX as the only multi-asset exchange in the region offering various asset classes like derivatives, equities, fixed income, exchange traded funds and structured products in both the conventional and Islamic finance vertical. In its initial phase, the BFX is listing three derivatives products for trading. These products are natural gas futures, gold futures and euro and US dollar futures, and are designed to provide market participants with opportunities to trade on precious metals, energy and currency asset classes to meet their investment and hedging requirements. "We are confident that the BFX market will be utilised by local financial institutions and will facilitate the Baharainese financial market achieve a higher level of maturity and uniformity," Central Bank of Bahrain governor Rasheed al Maraj said. PTI AP BEN NSK