London Steel Exchange to suggest closure of historic investing Ring | Organization Information

The City’s final-remaining open outcry investing ring is to be consigned to historical past by the London Metallic Exchange (LME) as portion of a review aimed at modernising a single of the world’s most important commodity buying and selling hubs.

Sky Information has learnt that the LME is envisioned to suggest the conclude of its open up outcry framework in a consultation document to be published afterwards on Tuesday.

It will be regarded as a historic second for just one of the most identifiable procedures in the Metropolis of London, and is probable to meet up with stiff resistance from some LME brokers.

The LME Ring underpins roughly $50bn of metal trades each individual working day, and has been operational given that the 1800s.

It has, nonetheless, been briefly shut as a end result of the coronavirus pandemic, and had not been scheduled to resume buying and selling until eventually social distancing protocols experienced been abandoned.

Market place insiders mentioned the lasting closure would be proposed in the context of a broader sector consultation aimed at modernising the LME in line with exchanges in other asset classes, these kinds of as shares, wherever electronic trading has become the norm.

Just one function of the consultation would be to analyze whether or not a regulatory info assistance comparable to that used by the London Inventory Exchange need to be deployed for metals trading, a person source claimed.

The goal, they included, was to enhance the transparency and “fairness” of the LME’s functions.

The LME is owned by HKEX, the owner of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

An LME spokeswoman declined to comment.