Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEx) and London Metal Exchange (LME) announced the Board of LME’s self-clearing platform currently in development

London, UK, 18-12-2013 — /EuropaWire/ — Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEx) and the London Metal Exchange (LME) are pleased to announce the formation of the Board of LME Clear, the LME’s self-clearing platform currently in development. LME Clear is on track to launch, as planned, on 22 September 2014.

The Board will be comprised of five Independent Non-Executive Directors and four Executive Board members.

The Independent Non-Executive Directors will be Richard Thornhill, Chairman; John Harrison; Marye Humphery; Nat le Roux; and Marco Strimer. The Executive Directors will be Trevor Spanner, Chief Executive of LME Clear; Gerald Greiner, HKEx Head of Global Clearing; Garry Jones, Chief Executive of the LME and Co-Head of Global Markets at HKEx; and Romnesh Lamba, HKEx Co-Head of Global Markets.

The Board became effective on 16 December 2013.

“This is an important day in the development of LME Clear. Strong and robust governance is critical for clearing houses operating in the new regulatory environment,” said Trevor Spanner, CEO of LME Clear. “The broad range of experience and skills belonging to our Board demonstrates our continued commitment to building a world-class clearing house.”

Gerald Greiner, HKEx’s Head of Global Clearing, said: “Having attracted individuals with proven experience and competence in clearing and market infrastructure, we are confident that the launch of LME Clear will be a core addition to HKEx Group’s capabilities in the clearing space.”

LME Clear is headquartered in London and has been designed and built in consultation with LME clearing members. It will be fully compliant with European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR) and powered by state of the art technology.

Notes to editors

Biographies of the members of the Board are below:

Richard Thornhill (Chairman)
Mr Thornhill was with Slaughter and May for 36 years, and as senior partner of Slaughter and May’s Hong Kong office he was responsible for all practice and operational matters of the office, including the Beijing office. He was also responsible for relationships with major clients at a senior level. Mr Thornhill practised corporate law, which covered equity and debt capital markets work, financings and mergers and acquisitions. He holds an MA degree from Oxford University.

Trevor Spanner (CEO, LME Clear)
Mr Spanner joined the LME in November 2011 as Head of Post Trade Services, including leadership of the strategic project LME Clear, which will deliver self-clearing capability to the Exchange and its members in 2014.

He joined LME from EuroCCP, the European clearing subsidiary of the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC). He played a leading part in the initial set up and implementation of EuroCCP as a Recognised Clearing House in 2008, and as Chief Operating Officer, was responsible for its day-to-day business operation.

Prior to EuroCCP Trevor held senior management positions within Merrill Lynch Europe, UBS Global Operations, responsible for delivery of clearing & settlement services for securities and exchange traded derivatives. In these roles Mr Spanner led a number of key strategic projects, including the implementation of market infrastructure and technology platforms.

Mr Spanner has a BA degree from the University of Kent in the UK and is a Chartered Accountant (ACA).

Gerald Greiner
Mr Greiner is HKEx’s Head of Global Clearing and has held numerous senior positions with HKEx since joining the Group in 2004. Prior to joining HKEx, Mr Greiner was a senior director of the Supervision of Markets Division at the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission and previous to this held numerous senior positions within the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from Allegheny College, USA, and a Juris Doctor degree from University of Toledo College of Law.

John Harrison
Mr Harrison was appointed a Board director of the LME on 6 December 2012. He is currently an Independent Non-Executive Director of HKEx. Mr Harrison is also an independent non-executive director of AIA Group Limited and BW Group Ltd, a member of the Asia Advisory Committee of AustralianSuper Pty Ltd and Honourary Treasurer, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

Mr Harrison retired in September 2010 as the former deputy chairman of KPMG International. He also held various other senior positions in KPMG during his service, including the chairman of KPMG’s Asia Pacific region and chairman of KPMG China and Hong Kong from 2003 to 2009, and a partner of KPMG Hong Kong from 1987 to 2009.

Mr Harrison holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics from Durham University and is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales and a member of the Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

Marye Humphery
Mrs Humphery is an investment banking professional with over 30 years’ experience. She is currently working as an independent consultant providing strategic advisory services on European market infrastructure and financial services business, operations and administration.

Garry Jones
Mr Jones is the Chief Executive of the LME and Co-Head of Global Markets at HKEx. He has over 30 years of experience in exchanges and financial services and was most recently the Chief Executive Officer of NYSE LIFFE and the Group Executive Vice President and Head of Global Derivatives for NYSE Euronext. Previously, he had been the Chief Executive Officer of Brokertec Europe and ICAP Electronic Broking after a career in trading and business management in the UK and the United States across a number of investment banks and hedge funds. Mr Jones has been a member of the board of directors of the Qatar Exchange, LCH.Clearnet Group Limited and the Federation of European Securities Exchanges.

He was a founder member of the Futures and Options Association’s European Industry Council and was a member of the senior level Practitioner Panel that advised The Financial Services Authority on new policy initiatives under the UK’s former regulatory regime. Mr Jones holds Bachelor and Master of Arts degrees in Geology from Oxford University in the UK and a Master of Business Administration degree from Stanford University in the US.

Romnesh Lamba
Mr Lamba is a Board director of the LME and LME Holdings Limited, having been appointed on 6 December 2012. He is currently the Co-Head of Global Markets at HKEx.

Before joining HKEx, Mr Lamba was a senior adviser to J.P. Morgan’s Asia excluding-Japan corporate finance and capital markets business in Hong Kong from 2008 to 2010. He held various senior positions in Merrill Lynch (Asia Pacific) from 2000 to 2008, including managing director of investment banking, and chief operating officer of China origination business from 2006 to 2008, and the head of the Asia energy and power team from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, he was the head of equity capital markets and director of investment banking of Indosuez W.I. Carr Securities (Hong Kong) from 1997 to 2000.

Mr Lamba holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics and a Master of Business Administration degree from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

Nat le Roux
Mr le Roux is Director of The Constitution Society. He has over 25 years of experience in derivatives markets and was Chief Executive of IG Group before stepping down in 2006 to pursue academic interests. He was appointed to the Board of the LME in December 2012 having previously served for four years on the Board of LME Holdings Limited.

Marco Strimer
Mr Strimer, a Swiss citizen, is Head of Operations at Bank J. Safra Sarasin Ltd., a leading Private Bank. Before joining in 2011, Mr Strimer was CEO of SIX x-clear (a bank under Swiss law and recognised overseas clearing house (ROCH) in the United Kingdom) belonging to SIX Group. Besides his position as CEO he was also a member of the Executive Board and in charge of risk management within the Securities Services Division of SIX Group. As CEO of SIX x-clear he expanded the clearing services from SIX Swiss Exchange to also cover the London Stock Exchange and most of the multilateral trading facilities (MTFs) in Europe, covering various products.

His career started in 1991 in a Swiss Bank where he gained international banking experience as well as during a four-year stay abroad. In 1994, he joined former INTERSETTLE which eventually became part of the SIX Group. During this time he was in senior positions at SIX Securities Services, CSD and Global Custodian.

* The Bank of England has no objection to these appointments; however, final approval for LME Clear’s governance arrangements is subject to the EMIR authorisation process.

**Both the LME and the LME Clear are wholly owned subsidiaries of the HKEx Group.

Contact details

For further information or to speak to an LME spokesperson, please contact:

Miriam Heywood
Head of Media Relations
+44 (0)207 264 5538
miriam.heywood@lme.com

About the London Metal Exchange
The London Metal Exchange, a member of HKEx Group, is the world centre for industrial metals trading.More than 80% of global non-ferrous metals business is conducted on our three trading platforms: LMEselect (electronic), the Ring (open outcry) and the 24-hour telephone market. The world’s metal community uses the LME to trade futures, options, and our latest contract, LMEswaps, to hedge against adverse price movements – prices which are discovered on our markets and used as the global benchmark.Participants can trade aluminium, copper, tin, nickel, zinc, lead, molybdenum, cobalt, steel billet and two regional aluminium alloy contracts. In 2012, 159.7 million lots were traded on the LME, the equivalent of 3.7 billion tonnes and $14.5 trillion in notional value.At the close of the year, 7.5 million tonnes of material was held on LME warrant in 765 storage facilities across 36 locations internationally.