Minister for Financial Services and Superannuation Bill Shorten today announced that the Government has approved the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) Market Integrity Rules for the FEX Global Pty Ltd Market.

On 10 April 2013, the Minister announced from China that he had granted FEX an Australian Market Licence allowing it to operate a new derivatives market in Australia.

The development and approval of Market Integrity Rules for the FEX brings the commencement of the market, and enhanced competition in our financial markets, closer to fruition.

The FEX market will expand the range of options for Australian market participants to trade or manage risks associated with various energy, commodity and environmental derivatives products.

The ASIC Market Integrity Rules (FEX Market) 2013 are required to ensure that ASIC will have the ability to appropriately supervise the activities and conduct of FEX and its market participants when the market commences operations.

These rules are modelled on the market integrity rules developed for the ASX 24 market, with minor amendments where necessary to reflect differences between these markets.

The Market Integrity Rules govern the activities or conduct of the FEX market, the conduct of market participants on the FEX market, and of how market participants may trade financial products on licensed markets.

The rules include risk management requirements for market participants including record keeping; as well obligations on FEX to provide surveillance and supervision data to ASIC.

The FEX market will provide a trading venue to trade specialised derivative products, and provide a greater service offering to the market. This will benefit participants, investors and the Australian market more broadly.

The Market Integrity Rules will be available at www.asic.gov.au