A little over one year into business, the United Stock Exchange has lost its chief, T S Narayanasami, who has quit as MD and CEO of the country's newest bourse.
When contacted, Narayanasami confirmed that he has tendered his resignation from the exchange, but did not divulge any further details.
However, industry sources said that Narayanasami had some differences with other senior management personnel and certain promoters of the exchange, which led to his resignation.
Some exchange officials sought to downplay the exit and claimed that his employment contract had come to an end.
Speculation has been doing the rounds for a couple of months now about the imminent exit of Narayanasami from the USE (United Stock Exchange), but he has previously scotched such rumours.
The resignation comes within a month of the USE completing one year of operations.
The exchange, which is present only in the currency derivatives segment, completed its first year of operations on September 20, 2011, and has managed an average market share of 22% in recent months.
The average daily trading volume on the exchange is in excess of Rs 10,000 crore.
Its shareholders include the country's leading bourse BSE, Jaypee Capital Sevices Limited, MMTC Limited, Indian Potash Limited and a host of public and private sector banks.
In the past, Narayanasami is said to have had differences with certain promoters and board members over the levy of transaction charges in currency trading and over plans to expand the USE's presence into other segments such as equity trading.
Earlier, in August, Narayanasami had said that USE would hold a board meeting by the month-end to decide on the levy of transaction charges, but the exchange is yet to charge anything for this market segment, although two of its rivals, the NSE and MCX-SX, have already begun levying a fee.
Also, there have been reports about a conflict of interest and a possible breach of fair trade practices due to one of its largest shareholders, Jaypee Capital, being a major trader also on the exchange.
The reports have said that about 80% of currency derivatives trade volumes on the USE come from Jaypee Capital alone.
