Thailand's first agricultural futures exchange went live on 28 May 2004. The new exchange, called AFET (the Agricultural Futures Exchange of Thailand),was designed and built as a turnkey solution by Patsystems.
Patsystems won the AFET contract in open bid at the beginning of 2003 and has been the lead supplier of a complete electronic trading and clearing system, including training and hardware. During the first trading session (10.30am to 12pm), the exchange traded contracts representing 220,000 kilos of rubber. The exchange plans to launch rice in the next two months followed by shrimp, tapioca and sugar next year.
The project, which has taken just over a year to complete, is a huge step for futures trading in Thailand and marks another successful implementation of Patsystems’ comprehensive range of exchange solutions, which includes matching, clearing and settlement.
A similar Patsystems’ project is underway at the National Commodity Exchange Limited (NCEL) in Pakistan. On 25 May, NCEL launched its training programme for the broker community and announced that the exchange intends to start live trading by the end of July, a rapid deployment given that the contract was awarded in January.
The success of the AFET project and the rapid progress at NCEL underline Patsystems growing role as a provider of exchange technology, complementing the company’s traditional role as a supplier of electronic trading systems
Commenting on the opening of the new exchange and the progress at NCEL, Kevin Ashby, chief executive of Patsystems, says: ‘Our exchange systems business is one of the twin pillars of our service as an independent software vendor. We supply trading systems and exchange systems, and both will soon draw added strength from our next-generation trading platform, called TradeMark. The new platform will help us to expand all areas of our business, not least the technology that we provide to exchanges such as AFET and NCEL