Meanwhile, 63 Moons Technologies, the trading platform vendor to the exchange, in exchange filings on Monday said, MCX will be taking a huge risk by being confident of not facing any technical/software glitches after September 30 when their contract ends along with service support and that in the event of any eventuality they will deploy third parties to rectify the issues, which if done so will be illegal and will be at the expenses of the large numbers of investors and traders on the exchange.
“The software support and maintenance agreement between 63 Moons and Multi-Commodity Exchange, amended on September 27, 2014, would end on September 30, 2022. As the agreement is not being renewed, MCX’s right to continue to use the exchange technology software (with no access to source code to rectify issues or bugs that may arise) shall be subject to any regulatory restrictions.
“MCX shall not be entitled to receive any software support after September 30 if the trading or settlement system halts for any reason. No work by any third person is possible if the exchange platform develops any issues as no access to the source code will be available to the exchange,” Hariraj Chouhan, a senior vice-president and company secretary at 63 Moons said in exchange filings.
When contacted, an MCX official, who wished to be not quoted, told PTI that they have decided against renewing the software contract with 63 Moons as the new fee demand is unaffordable.
When asked how long are they from rolling out the new platform, which is being developed by tech major TCS, the official said, “In the best case scenario, we need at least three to four months. But our intent is as soon as possible”.
Discover the stories of your interest
As to why the exchange is taking such a huge risk, which is to protect its margins, which in the eventuality of a negative development may scupper the entire exchange and its millions of investors and hundreds of traders, the official said, “We hope not, and the need for the source code will arise only if there is a commodity falls into negative price territory, which thankfully is not a regular event”.
“We need the source code only on critical situations like negative pricing, then we will have to tweak the source code to reset the pricing,” he said.
An official of 63 Moons, owned by the original promoter of the exchange Jignesh Shah, told PTI that the exchange had said in its annual reports that in the eventuality of any serious technical glitches, the vendor will be responsible and that the exchange will be free to deploy third party engineers to get the platform back in shape.
When asked about this, the MCX official said that was just a disclosure to the regulators and investors/shareholders and that nothing beyond that.
MCX had floated a public request for proposal in October 2020 which closed in December 2020. And it began discussions with 63 Moons for a new agreement in October 2020 and the last communication from MCX seeking inputs/clarification for negotiation was received in January 2021. MCX had again approached 63 Moons in August 2022 to nothing moved forward, 63 Moons said in the filing.
For all the latest Technology News Click Here
