Shah: Exit mode

Mumbai, Oct. 31: Jignesh Shah, the flamboyant designer of bourses in the country, today resigned as the non-executive vice-chairman of Multi Commodity Exchange of India (MCX), bringing the curtains down on a chequered and controversial career.

The resignation, which comes into immediate effect, is a fallout of the crisis that has engulfed the National Spot Exchange (NSEL), which has been promoted by Financial Technologies (India) Ltd.

FTIL also controls MCX.

Just over a week ago, Shah had managed to retain his position on the MCX board.

An emotional Shah said in a statement that the NSEL crisis had destroyed “everything” he had worked for in his life.

“The NSEL crisis has destroyed everything that I have worked hard to build over the past two decades. My loss is not just financial but what has hurt me and my family most is the concerted effort to destroy my credibility and trust for which I have lived by all my life,” he said.

The resignation comes weeks after sector regulator Forward Markets Commission (FMC) issued notices to Shah and Financial Technologies, after the outbreak of the NSEL crisis, to prove that they were “fit and proper” to manage the country’s largest commodity exchange.

The FMC sought replies both from Shah and FTIL by October 18. Shah had sought more time to reply to the notice. Subsequently, the regulator gave these entities time till October 30.

Shah here said a detailed reply had been filed addressing all the concerns raised in the regulator’s show-cause notice.

In September, the FMC had directed commodity exchanges to restructure their boards.

The regulator has directed that 50 per cent of the directors on the board of such companies must be independent and that anchor investors can have directors in proportion to their holding.