The chief executive officer of the Singapore Mercantile Exchange, Thomas McMahon, resigned on Friday over differences of opinion with the exchange's owner, Singapore's Sunday Times reported on the weekend.
McMahon's departure was believed to be due to "strategy differences" with the company's parent, Mumbai's Financial Technologies (India) Limited, the newspaper said, citing unidentified sources. McMahon, the exchange, and its representatives were not immediately available for comment.
The exchange has seen limited interest in the contracts it has launched over the past year or so, which include gold, oil, base metals, and currencies. The exchange is also considering iron ore and coal futures.
McMahon's strategy had been to push for benchmark futures, but he faced stiff competition in the commodities space from established markets like Nymex in oil, Comex in gold, the London Metal Exchange and the Shanghai Futures Exchange in metals and domestically from the Singapore Exchange.
McMahon joined SMX about two years ago. Earlier, he headed the Hong Kong Mercantile Exchange (HKMEX) and was a former director of Nymex Asia. Financial Technologies has established 10 multi-asset exchanges across India, Dubai, Singapore, Africa, Mauritius and Bahrain.