United Stock Exchange begins operations

• New bourse for currency derivatives, the United Stock Exchange of India (USE), began operations on Monday.
• After the NSE and MCX, the USE is the third bourse offering currency trading in the country.
• The exchange commenced operations in the all four currency pairs allowed by SEBI — dollar-rupee, euro-rupee, yen-rupee and pound-rupee.
• Worldwide, the currency derivatives market was bigger than equities with volumes of $3-billion-a-day while India's contribution is only one per cent. Hence, there was a greater prospect for growth.
• The RBI and SEBI came out strongly in support of having a diversified ownership in exchanges for ensuring good governance of the "systemically important institutions."

Public-private partnership

USE is a unique public-private partnership with 21 public sector banks, five top private banks, the BSE, trading companies like the state-owned trading entity MMTC, Jaypee Capital, gold importer Riddhi Siddhi and a leading garment exporter as stakeholders.