Former London Metal Exchange Execs To Compete Against 140-year-old Exchange With New Electronic Platform

The former head of the London Metals Exchange has launched an electronic trading platform for non-ferrous, or largely industrial, metals to compete with the 140-year-old exchange. The platform, called NFEx Markets, will run on a system designed by London-based startup Autilla and will begin trading in the first quarter of 2018. News of the development group's desire to create a competitor first hit in March. NFEx will be headed by a five-member team that includes Martin Abbott, who left the LME in 2013 after it was sold to Hong Kong Exchanges. "We anticipate NFEx Markets will increase cost-efficiency in the global base metals markets," said Mark Bradley, who will run the new platform, in a release. "This new trading platform will not replace or disturb current trading models but will be complementary to them," he said. The broad decline in LME trading volumes--it also includes electronic trading--have been widely reported. LME, the world's oldest exchange, also competes in certain metals-trading markets with New York-based COMEX, owned by CME Group .