MCX chairman Chary, 5 directors resign from board

Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) chairman Venkat Chary and five other directors on the bourse's board quit on Friday following implementation of new guidelines including those that bar any person over 70 years of age to hold a board position.

While Mr Chary and C M Maniar, who was a Forward Markets Commission-approved independent director on MCX, quit due to the age guideline, former managing director Lambertus Rutten and independent director P R Barpande resigned citing pre-occupations, MCX said in a filing to the stock exchanges.

The development comes on the heels of NSEL defaulting on the second payout for settling Rs 5,600 crore dues after it suspended trade on July 31 following government's direction in the wake of violation of certain rules.

Both National Spot Exchange Ltd (NSEL) and MCX are promoted by the Jignesh Shah-headed Financial Technologies India Ltd (FTIL).

MCX further said it "the exchange has earmarked Rs 232.39 crore as initial settlement guarantee fund (SGF)" and that it will "always remain in compliance with SGF guidelines of FMC as may be prescribed from time to time".

Meanwhile, FMC-nominated independent director Prakash Apte has also resigned with effect from August 31 and has been replaced by Santosh Kumar Mohanty by the regulator.

Shareholder director Shvetal Vakil resigned from the board due to the term criteria prescribed in the guidelines.

The resignations of Mr Chary, Mr Maniar, Mr Vakil, Mr Apte and Mr Rutten are effective from August 31, 2013, while Mr Barpande's is effective from Saturday, the filing added.