Policy dilemma on derivatives migration

Offshore locations account for a major share of Indian derivatives trade but experts say the rule relaxations needed to reverse the trend have other effects

Despite several attempts by the central government and the markets regulator, the export of Indian derivative markets to destinations such as Singapore and Dubai continue to threaten the domestic markets.

According to official data, the total number of Nifty active contracts on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) is 367,730. As compared to 496,198 on the Singapore Exchange (SGX). Similarly, for rupee-dollar futures, there are a total of 3.8 billion active contracts offshore (including SGX, Dubai and Chicago), against 3.1 bn on the NSE, BSE and MSCI put together.

This migration is largely on account of higher transactional costs, stricter regulations here and