FTIL’s Contribution to India’s Financial Markets

Financial Technologies (India) Limited (FTIL) is regarded as “Marvel of modern financial markets” for a reason. FTIL brought inclusive and equitable growth in India through technology.

Before the inception of FTIL, the way stock and commodity markets worked was quite laidback. Jignesh Shah, the Founder of Financial Technologies, knew India needed technological advancements in the sector.

The journey began with the launch of software solutions, such as ODIN. From the early stages, FTIL’s list of clients included bourses, such as the National Stock Exchange (NSE).

Today, under the supervision of Jignesh Shah, FTIL runs a successful renowned technology business. The company is determined in shaping the future through technology and innovation in the rising ‘Digital India’ space.

The Financial Technologies Group never received any kind of subsidy or tax relaxation from the Indian government. On the other hand, the group generated substantial revenue for the government, amounting to Rs 4,000 crore.

The exchange markets of Singapore, Dubai, Bahrain and Africa have sought help from FTIL in technological development. Jignesh Shah’s broad vision and FTIL’s international operations put India on the world map of global finance. For new-born markets, strategies of this company have carved a path to great success.

The Financial Technologies Group’s rise is a true ‘Made in India’ story. Every enterprise that has been promoted and launched by the Group, has been the Number 1 in India and Number 2 in the world. The country should be proud of such exceptionally remarkable feats achieved by a home-grown company.

 

MCX plays a key role in the economic growth of India

The brainchild of the inspirational thought leader Jignesh Shah, Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) stands tall amongst the world’s largest commodity futures exchanges.

Jignesh shah, who is also the Founder of Financial Technologies (India) Limited (FTIL), launched MCX in 2003 with an objective of bringing economic development and stimulating social stability in India.

The unparalleled success of MCX enabled the FTIL Group to establish a rock-solid universe of exchanges and ecosystem institutions. It facilitated the Financial Technologies Group tocreate a global exchange industry that constitutes a number of profitable ventures, such as the Indian Energy Exchange (IEX), the Dubai Gold & Commodities Exchange (DGCX), the Bahrain Financial Exchange (BFX), Bourse Africa, and Singapore Mercantile Exchange (SMX).

 

MCX designed a five-tier approach that includes a ‘mission’─ of India, by India, in India, to India, and for India.

 

Mission of India

Multi-asset futures trading issignificant for India’s economic development. Commodity exchanges help in accurate pricing of bullion, metals, energy and agricultural products. Also, it enables producers and consumers to mitigate risks.

 

Mission by India

The firm stature of the post-independence commodity futures market in India is a result of the skills, talent andfar-sighted approach of Indian investors, traders, brokers, intermediaries and bankers.

 

Mission in India

The development and benefits of Indian commodity exchanges stays within the borders of the country. It has helped tremendously in managing trading activities, checking price fluctuations and generating employment opportunities for many. Also, it enables the government to support its rural development programmes through the revenue generated from the taxes paid by these exchanges.

 

Mission to India

Commodity exchanges help inprice discovery and risk management through effectiveproduction and consumption planning. As a result, stakeholders, traders, entrepreneurs, logistic support providers, warehouse operators, collateral management companies, and individuals are benefitted to a great extent.

 

Mission for India

Indian commodity markets differ from capital markets. Commodity markets in India are driven by the farmers, traders, consumers and investors residing within the nation. Foreign

Institutional investors or companies have no role to play in the Indian commodity markets.

Jignesh Shah –The ‘Exchange Man of India’

Jignesh Shah, the founder of Financial Technologies (India) Limited (FTIL), is a perfect epitome of unwavering fortitude, indomitable will, and novel vision.Also known as the father of finance and trading digitisation in India, Jignesh Shah’s success story is phenomenal in its truest sense.

The journey commenced from the role of Assistant Manager at the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). In-depth knowledge on trading system automation and familiarity with the functioning of world-class exchanges aided Jignesh Shah in starting up his own venture. This revolutionary project was FTIL.

With the Financial Technologies Group, Jignesh Shah radicalised the global financial markets exponentially. He created ground-breaking technology solutions to support the formation and operation of modern IP-centric financial exchanges.He was rightly called the ‘Innovator of Modern Financial Markets’ for transforming the way commodities, stocks, currencies, and bond were traded globally.

Jignesh Shah also registered his path-breaking contribution to the Indian economy with a pioneering venture known as the Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX). The Futures Industry Association (FIA) recognises MCX to be one of the largest commodity futures exchange in the world.It was followed with a number of other profitable undertakings, such as the Dubai Gold & Commodities Exchange (DGCX), the Indian Energy Exchange (IEX), the Bahrain Financial Exchange (BFX), Singapore Mercantile Exchange (SMX), Bourse Africa, and so on.

The active involvement of Jignesh Shah in generating more than 1 million job opportunities in India cannot be overlooked. He also played a key role in promoting Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities. With establishments, such as the Gramin Suvidha Kendra, he aimed at empowering the Indian farmers. He undertook multiple initiatives to elevate the living standard and income of people belonging to the rural areas of the country.

The unparalleled achievements of Jignesh Shah as the ‘E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year 2006’ and the ‘US-India Businessman of the Year 2005-06’are just a few recognitions to name in the Fintech sector of India.

Undoubtedly, Jignesh Shah is the living proof to the popular saying, “Innovation is the only way to win”.

 

 

MCX creates ripples in India’s financial sector

Multi Commodity Exchange of India (MCX) is the latest buzz in stock exchange markets. MCX is carrying on transactions in both precious and base metals, yet gold and silver contributes to its maximum trade values. The two metals reckoned 49 per cent of MCX’s turnover during 2007 that increased expeditiously to 63.7 per cent by 2011. A range of agricultural products, along with energy-related items, such as like oil also involves a significant involvement.
Founder of FTIL, Jignesh Shah, the man behind MCX’s success, clinched his biggest accomplishment when he got approval from regulatory body SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India) in September 2003. MCX is responsible for 98.5 per cent of silver and 97.1 per cent of gold trade of India that beat its nearest competitor National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange. The market share of MCX is steadily increasing, which can be observed with over- subscribed IPO held in February this year. The company raised Rs. 663 crore from such issue in return of 6.43 million shares.

The success mantra for the enterprise lies on its willingness to handhold members in the early years. MCX believes ‘Every minute counts’ and the company is capitalizing the reduced response time by exchange.
Once the additional margin money is remitted, an immediate call from the trader would enable him to take fresh trade positions in mere five minutes. The competitors of MCX sometimes takes longer than four hours to execute the same transaction.
MCX intends to involve more ‘jobbers’, the day traders who act as market makers to effectively utilize the available opportunities. Few industry experts say that the exchanges commodities at MCX like gold and silver not only have highest turnover but also implicates higher volumes. This, in turn, generates higher transaction fees in contrast with agricultural commodities.
MCX has changed the way India perceives growth in the financial sector. But for FTIL Founder, Jignesh Shah, this is just the beginning.

MCX-SX gains a major advantage in currency trades

With their new currency derivative segment MCX-SX has ruled over NSE which used to rule the stock markets. Jignesh Shah has a major hand in the success and prosperity of MCX-SX, and he was the one who supported this exchange platform with the help of his trading firm FTIL.

The turnover also has exceeded in the span of these last 18 months and the two players of this segment are MCX-SX and NSE but due to their new share growth in the capital market strategy MCX-SX has emerged victorious in the whole war. The percentage is 30% higher since the month of February.

Share market experts have claimed that MCX traders are going to be more active in the currency future from what they are now. Therefore, there are more chances for NSE to lose their traders to MCX-SX. Mr. Pramit, the CEO of Alpari India on this event said that the NSE derivative market is mostly comprised of foreign and domestic investors. DII, who is also one of their investors does not seem to participate, due to the lack of their currency exposure and FII due to some restrictions from RBI, which eventually will lower the shares of NSE in the market.

According to Mr. Vikram Murarka, speculative trading is the reason behind the increasing volume of the future currency market, which in turn demotivates the interested exporters and importers as they have to visit the bank for even minor dollar payment. It could later be the cause of these people to shift to MCX-SX for the trading purpose.

The Currency derivative head of Bonanza Portfolio, Jatin Damani says that about 25% currency futures volume would support corporate hedging, whereas about 78% supports arbitrage of commodity traders, retail trading, and proprietary trading.

The contracts in new currency pairs could also be a factor supporting this sudden shift from NSE to MCX-SX.

Jignesh Shah- the king of financial market

The NSEL crisis had an enormous impact on the shareholders and employees of FTIL. But the massive impact it had was on Jignesh Shah, who was on the peak of his career at the age of 49 and was regarded as the King of Commodity exchanges.

Financial Market

He founded FTIL in the year 1988 and played the pivotal role in making it one of the leading conglomerates.

Mr. Jignesh Shah

Jignesh Shah with his unprecedented ambition and innovative ways revolutionized the way the financial market worked not just in India but in overseas too and emerged as one of the leading tycoons.

The financial group helps in trading numerous assets like equities, commodity, bonds, and currencies. He has bagged many awards for his commendable work in this field. In 2006 he was honored with Priyadarshini Award, for his outstanding contribution to Indian industry and was also felicitated with the Indian businessman of the year award for his contribution in making rural India a better place.

Other than FTIL he played a substantial role in NSEL, MCX-SX which is now called Metropolitan Stock Exchange. Jignesh Shah embraced the power of technology and the innovator in him always made him push his limits and come up with new ways to use it to everyone’s advantage. That’s how he came up with the idea of creating JS innovation Labs and became FTIL’s new avatar chief mentor. And in his absence now, the innovation lab isn’t being managed the way he would’ve done. He expressed distress on the way our nation takes new ideas as he believes that innovation in this nation is either rewarded, or it’s destroyed, there is no in between.

Although Jignesh Shah’s innovative ways also have a major role in the economic growth of the country.

Massey, the current managing director of FTIL, is counted in the trusted aides of Jignesh Shah. He has been managing the whole organization without any formal designation and is making the recovery of all the funds of FTIL.

India 2.0 Rising:FTIL’s Jignesh Shah plays a major role in bringing the country on the IT world page

India’s own techno czar had a chance landing at the stock market. A Mechanical Engineer by profession, Jignesh Shah entered the Bombay Stock Exchange to look at its technical aspects. Soon, Shah, at the age of 26, raised money by mortgaging his house and setting up a company that aimed to service the financial market of the nation.
While setting up Financial Technologies (India) Limited, Jignesh Shah didn’t knowhis vision would expand in such a huge manner. He could not have imagined an upgraded version of the Indian financial market, which could be pitted against the world stock exchanges.
The ‘Technocrat’ says, “At 26, when I bet on whatever wealth my family had, including mortgaging our house, to raise $11000 capital for starting Financial Technologies, I hadn’t quite envisaged what it would become in future. There was no way I could have connected the dots looking forward.”
But Jignesh Shah decided to take the leap of faith. “I simply had to trust my gut, trust that the dots would somehow connect in future. It’s only when I look back that I can connect them. And this approach has helped me take where Financial Technologies is today.”
And the Founder of FTIL likes to believe that his company has indeed changed the face of Indian IT sector. He explains, “Post-1992 is the era I would like to refer as India 2.0, a time when reforms have made it possible to create global brands… that focus on IP-centric products or services. This is quite different from the India 1.0 period (prior to 1992) when cost or labor arbitrage drove business, especially in the IT sector.”

According to Jignesh Shah, the change in the IT sector has brought India onthe global map. “These brands have given muscle to the Indian economy, helping it register a consistent upward growth. While the country grew at roughly 6% during the 80s, the 90s has seen the growth rate shoot to 8%, and higher.”
No wonder, Shah is confident about being an integral part of the upgraded India, version 2.0!

MCX gearing up for options trading in commodities, currency derivatives

The Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) is preparing the ground to launch derivatives trading in currency and has asked four technology service providers to submit request for proposals (RFP).

RFP is a process of collecting written information about the capabilities of various suppliers for comparative purposes.

Mrugank Paranjape, Managing Director, MCX, on the sidelines of an interaction here, said the exchange expects SEBI to allow options trading in commodities in nine months and then consider launching derivatives trading in currency on the platform after getting the regulator’s approval.

“While options can be launched using the current technology, we are exploring the possibility of engaging a new service provider for currency and have called for RFP,” he said in his first interaction with the media after assuming office at the country’s largest commodities exchange.

The agreement with the current technology service provider Financial Technology (India) (FTIL), the erstwhile promoter of the exchange, expires in 2022.

Following the  Rs 5,600-crore settlement default at the National Spot Exchange in 2013, the then market regulator Forward Markets Commission had declared Financial Technologies, its promoter Jignesh Shah and certain other officials as not ‘fit and proper’ to operate a commodity exchange.

“We have tested the technology (provided by FTIL) to the best of our ability to handle the high volumes expected to be generated when the regulator allows trading in options and we found it absolutely safe to use,” he said here on Thursday.

Asked whether the exchange would consider buying the software from FTIL if SEBI objects to using services of an entity that has been declared not ‘fit and proper’, Paranjape said the exchange keeps evaluating various options.

In a bid to boost trading volumes, the exchange has filed papers with SEBI to launch futures trading in five agriculture commodities. “We are planning to strengthen our agriculture portfolio with four-five new contracts which are at various stages of approval. These agriculture contracts are currently not traded on any exchange,” said Paranjape.

Asked whether MCX would consider launching trading in equities as the NSE and BSE have shown keen interest in commodity trading, he said it makes sense to play to one’s strengths and that is exactly why MCX would consider to launch launching trading in currency first as it has correlation with gold in which “we are the market leader”.

Why is MCA Ignoring Recoveries?

The MCA issued the draft order of NSEL-FTIL merger on October 21, 2014. This was order was based on the recommendations made by the Forward Markets Commission (FMC). The constitutional validity of Section 396 of the Companies Act, 1956, was challenged and, in turn, the legality of the draft order was challenged by FTIL before the Bombay High Court.

If the merger is being forced on FTIL to ensure recovery for trading clients, then MCA needs to first consider that Rs.542 crore has already been paid off. Additionally, NSEL has made substantial recovery efforts by filing over 150 cases against defaulters, obtaining Rs.1,233crore of decrees, and Rs. 3,428.86 crore of injunctions.
Hope for Justice
Initiatives like encouraging the investments and FDI into our country and rolling back EPF have boosted immense faith among the entrepreneur fraternity into our government. However, instances like the Vodafone tax issue and ban on Maggi raised questions towards corporate governance in the nation. A favorable and thoughtful decision on the forced merger of NSEL-FTIL is a great opportunity for the government to boost and encourage entrepreneur spirit amongst young and dynamic business minds.

MCA blind-folded towards real defaulters

The forcible merger of NSEL into its promoter, Financial Technologies (India) Ltd (FTIL) has evoked a huge response and quivered the pillars of the prevailing system of administration of justice.
The case of FTIL promoting NSEL and being merged together for bearing the latter’s responsibilities, is against the Indian law and order apart from being a not-a-public-interest-litigation. The authenticity of 13,000 alleged trading clients is still under investigation and the proposal of the merger in-between the inquiry process is undoubtedly a premature decision taken by the Government. Clearly, the Forward Markets Commission (FMC) which has been appointed by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) has levied ill-proportioned and unfair punishment of merging the promoter, FTIL and its subsidiary, NSEL with this improvident decision, and that too without investigating the real trade players and their genuineness. It seems like MCA is washing its hands off the real defaulters through this merger. The implausibility and ambiguity of MCA is clearly evident from its application to seek six weeks’ time to respond to Financial Technologies’ challenge of final merger order issued in February this year. The ministry seems to be uncertain about its own decision and is continuously seeking extension of time in filling of affidavit to defend its case despite having over a year to prepare for the same.
Merger is clearly not the solution in this case and is a digression from the real issue. The premise for proposing it in the first place is misleading as the real solution lies in the recovery from defaulters. Instead of proposing an irrational merger, the concerned authorities should have focused on the recovery of the dues from the real defaulters. It is a complete failure on their part to realize that this hogwash will open an easy escape route for real DEFAULTERS to get off.