The bank says it chose Singapore for the Asia-Pacific desk because local regulators have been developing this market with legislative reforms, joint ventures with international exchanges like NYMEX, and tax incentives for investors.
Standard Chartered's commodity-derivatives team will cover the full spectrum of precious metals, base metals, energy and soft commodities. The product offering will range from vanilla swaps to innovative and cross-market derivatives solutions.
An immediate market presence has been established with the hiring of a team from Commerzbank headed by Jeremy East, who has been appointed head of metals, global commodity derivatives, rates and foreign exchange, reporting to Will Shropshire. Based in London, East has over 25 years of trading and marketing experience in commodities (metals and energy) and is international advisor to the Shanghai Metals Exchange.
"The Bank has a rich history in commodity trading in Asia and India dating back to the 1850s," says Will Shropshire, head of global commodity derivatives at Standard Chartered Bank. "Today, across our extensive network, we have clients who are producing, exporting, importing and consuming oil and metals as well as traditional agricultural commodities. A commodity derivatives capability allows us to help manage-price risk for our corporate clients exposed to these volatile markets."
He adds: "In addition, over the past few years, investors have seen the portfolio benefits of commodities as an asset class. This is now a multi-billion dollar market and our commodity-derivatives capability also allows us to provide commodity price exposure to our investor clients."
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