The London Metal Exchange’s demand for details of private deals between its members and their clients marks a line in the sand by chief Matthew Chamberlain, as he seeks to repair the market’s reputation and avoid a repeat of this year’s nickel-market chaos.
Yet it’s likely to reverberate far beyond the metals world. The LME’s proposal represents the first major move to increase oversight of global commodity markets as wild price swings following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine leave regulators increasingly uneasy. There’s a growing worry about the risks hidden in opaque corners of the trade in natural resources — and the vast ecosystem of privately negotiated over-the-counter derivatives trades is a prime example.