Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Multi Commodity Exchange of India Limited Q4 FY 2026 Earnings Conference Call. Joining us on the call are Ms. Praveena Rai, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, MCX. Mr. Rishi Nathany, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Multi Commodity Exchange Clearing Corporation Limited. Mr. Chandresh Shah, Chief Financial Officer, MCX, and Mr. Manoj Jain, Chief Operating Officer, MCX. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during this conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star and then zero on your touchtone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Ms. Praveena Rai, MD and CEO, MCX. Thank you and over to you, ma'am.
Thank you very much. Good evening, everybody. It's wonderful to be here. Warm welcome to all the participants joining us for the call. It's been a good year with good results, and I'm very pleased to report this. Very exceptional year, building strong momentum that we have seen in earlier quarters, and we've had a robust close with the last quarter as well. This performance reflects strength across our volumes, the product innovation, as well as market participation, and it reinforces the relevance of commodity derivatives in India's financial ecosystem. For this quarter, we have delivered a strong performance. There is growth across improvement in trading activity as well as participation across all our segments.
During the year, we navigated periods of high volatility and challenging market conditions across multiple commodities, including potential delivery risks, which were all very strongly, rigorously, and effectively managed with minimum disruption to market functioning. In fact, I would say I call it one of our highlights of last year that the market integrity was maintained at the highest level despite a lot of broader economic risks that came our way. For the full year FY 2026, the consolidated revenue from operations more than doubled to INR 2,302 crores. This was supported by nearly a two and a half times increase in the average daily turnover across both futures and options. The profit after tax crossed INR 1,300 crores and EBITDA at INR 1,774 crores reflected both the scale benefits and the continued cost discipline.
To strengthen the commodity derivatives ecosystem, we've initiated a focused drive, Price in India, Hedge in India. This promotes and deepens hedging participation within India for SME as well as corporate hedgers. Institutional and retail investors have also increasingly embraced the commodity asset class, leading to broader and deeper market participation. Our product development efforts focused on contract innovation and enhanced expiry frameworks contributed to deeper liquidity as well as wider market access. Importantly, the growth we are witnessing is structural, along with taking advantage of cyclical tailwinds. Increasing participation from a diverse set of market participants, improving awareness, acceptance of commodity derivatives, introducing more participants to both the hedging instrument as well as the asset class positions us well for sustained expansion. Looking forward, we are confident in our strategy, positioned to capitalize the next phase of growth in India's commodity derivative market.
As we scale, we are focused on the highest standards of governance, risk management, and market integrity. Strengthening infrastructure, continuing to invest in our technology, and delivering a seamless trading experience will be top priorities. Our emphasis will be on innovation, liquidity enhancement, and long-term value creation for all our stakeholders. We thank our regulators, member brokers, participants, our partners, and all stakeholders, including our shareholders, for their continued trust and support in MCX. I now conclude my opening remarks and happy to take questions. We have our management team here with us as well.
Thank you very much. We will now begin with the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and then one on their touch-tone phone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen we may wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. Our first question comes from the line of Shrenik Mehta from IndoAlps Wealth . Please go ahead.
Hi. I just wanted to check, regarding the statement that you made about, large part of this growth being structural. What are the factors that you're seeing which is helping you to say that, factor? You know, we see clearly bullions really driving most of the volumes, and bullion volatility is also driving a lot of this, picture. If you could throw some light, it'll be fantastic.
Yeah. You know, our two big drivers of volume are energy and bullion. We've seen growth across both of these. While of course bullion has had a much higher growth, and we are very happy about that. It has grown more than four times.
Yeah.
The energy growth has, you know, also been good and strong over a very high base. This really makes both of them strong constituents for MCX. Globally and in India, you know, we see there are certain points in time when the requirement around bullion will be stronger, and there'll be times when the requirements around energy will be stronger and perhaps times when both are equally important. We do see that they both, you know, create that sort of balancing with and alongside each other.
This along with the kind of opportunity in the Indian space, the kind of commodity markets needed to support the growth in the country, the sort of early growth stage in which the overall market is, of which MCX is a large participant, all create that, you know, structural foundation. There's still a lot more opportunity when it comes to what can be done, regulatory-wise, policy-wise, et cetera, et cetera, and we believe over the years, that will also play out. Yes, there is a cyclical component, but there is a deep structural component also.
Okay. You believe really the momentum is continuing the way you the trend in the last few months?
We believe the coming year will be a strong year. Exactly how each quarter will play out, of course, we'll wait and see how the numbers are. We believe the year will be a strong year.
All right. Thank you for this.
Thank you, Shrenik.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, in order to ensure that the management is able to address questions from all the participants in the conference, we request you to limit yourselves to two questions per participant and rejoin the queue for any other follow-up questions. Our next question comes from the line of Devesh Agarwal from IIFL Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thank you everyone for the opportunity. Firstly, congratulations to the entire team for a great set of numbers. Ma'am, my first question would be there was a consultation paper which talked about allowing FPIs into gold and silver contracts. One, if there is any update you can give us. Secondly, what is the contribution that we have from FPIs in the energy products, that is crude oil and natural gas?
Hi, Devesh. Thank you very much for the wishes. Having FPIs to participate broadly in the commodity space going beyond the cash settle segment is certainly critical on the agenda. It's something that there has been a fair amount of debate and consultation. As you know, there's also the consultant consultation paper that is out there. We are also contributing strongly in it. We will of course wait for the results of this paper to come out and, you know, then we will take it forward from there. The FPI contribution, as you know, is primarily in the energy segment because it's the cash settle segment. Our onboarding of FPIs has been strong. The pipeline is also strong. The contribution currently stands at about 2%-3% of ADT.
Within the energy segment, they are a significant contributor. I would say that they are in the double-digit contribution of energy, while at the broader MCX level they will be at about a 2%-3%. We see this number growing, quarter-on-quarter.
Right, sir. Right, ma'am. Secondly, ma'am, if hypothetically if we were to say that regulator allows co-location in commodities, in what time we'll be able to roll out these services to the traders? What is the preparedness that we have to introduce co-location services?
If this were to get permitted, by the regulator, we'll be able to take this to market, fairly soon within the kind of market requirements required. We don't think we will not be on the back foot there.
Understood. The only reason to ask this was because the competition already offer co-location services in equities, so they are already at it. Do we also have prepared to kind of introduce it within a month or so?
Yes, Devesh. We do have our plans in place, and we'll be able to activate them at short notice.
Perfect. I had two accounting-related questions.
Sorry to interrupt, Mr. Agarwal.
No worries. It's okay. Thank you so much.
Thank you. Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Amit Chandra from HDFC Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks for the opportunity. My first question is on the increase in the UCC that we have seen. For the full year, it's up by 64%, and very heartening to see this. Obviously it is because of onboarding of some of the discount brokers, non-discount brokers. Is it fair to assume that the increase in the UCC is in the base or we can see further more participation in terms of more retail clients coming and trading onto the commodities? We are now in terms of number of people trading, we are at 35% of what it is there in equities.
What is driving such a, you know, steep expansion in terms of, you know, the people who are trading on the commodities? Is it only the volatility or you see some active participation, you know, across, or it is more of like broad-based?
Hi, Amit. Amit, we would want to see a sort of democratic increase in participation without being overly aggressive in any one space. I think I'm quite happy with where we stand on the retail side. We don't believe that, everyone who, you know, is an equity investor will end up becoming a commodity investor. We are seeing the numbers ramp up, steadily and evenly and, we will continue to retain our efforts in that growth. A lot of actions that have been taken that we have worked with the market as well, as you said, with digital members, digital brokers, looking at things like the consolidated ledger, looking at user experience of MCX trading vis-a-vis the equity markets.
I think a lot of work went into that last year, and we are seeing the benefits of that. We think there is more user experience opportunity to streamline and continue to see interest in the retail segment. Having said that, you know, as we look at the numbers from the AMCs, the mutual funds and, you know, many other segments like wealth and so on. We do believe that retail will also find these channels to start participating in the commodity market. Not all of this will be very straight. There has been a regulatory action where there is a lot more flexibility and opportunity that mutual funds will see in the coming months when it comes to increasing the kind of commodity exposure in their portfolios.
We think retail will participate in all these ways. Overall, we'd like to see that a broader multi-segment participation to grow.
Okay. ma'am, my second question is in terms of the product pipeline, obviously you have mentioned last time also that, you know, we will be launching some of the metal contracts. Where we are in terms of, you know, the launch of some new products which can, you know, further diversify our, you know, volume contribution. you know, in terms of the index options scaling up, is it only the FPI is not being allowed into, you know, non-cash settled commodities is the only like bottleneck there? Is there some other, you know, things which is stopping the index options to scale up?
Secondly, you know, there was an article in the newspapers which talked about some weekly contracts also being considered in the index side. You know, like what are your views on that? Thank you.
Yeah. I think I'll first comment on this newspaper article then, and we've in fact put out our own response on X that, you know, misleading media information is really getting published. I will not really, you know, comment on that. The question that you asked on, what is the core question?
Metal contracts.
Index options.
Metal contracts. Sorry. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
Metals.
On product pipeline, we do have a strong pipeline. You know, we had a certain number of products that we wanted to look at last year, we launched according to what we thought the market will be appropriate in taking. We are prepared with our next lot of products, and, you know, we again will look at the suitable requirements in energy, in metals, as well as, you know, other segments. Now amongst the indices, interestingly, you know, while we did talk a lot about the BULLDEX options, we found that this created a lot of interest in the future segment, and we are, you know, taking the feedback from the market in focusing our attention on futures on indices as well along with options.
We will also be looking at, moving further on, METLDEX this year. There will be more work on the indices side, as we both deepen and expand that portfolio.
Okay, ma'am. Thank you, and all the best.
Thank you, Amit.
Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Mitesh from Axis Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi, ma'am. Thank you for taking my questions. Most of the questions have been answered. Just on the participation side, how have been the trends in the participations in the month of April and May so far?
Hi, Mitesh. I don't think we are commenting on this quarter. I think we'll have to take your question in the next call.
No worries. Thank you.
There's no dramatic, yeah, cause for concern.
Thank you, ma'am.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Akhilesh Bhatter from Ampersand. Please go ahead.
Hi, ma'am. Congratulations on a good set of results. I had two questions. First one was regarding your competitor launching multiple bullion products and energy products in the last quarter and maybe from last year onwards. What are we doing to sort of protect market share here?
Hi, Akhilesh. Akhilesh, yes, we are watching the space very closely. It is a large competitor, and yes, they have made their intention felt in the market with a lot of focus that they are placing on commodity segment. From whatever we see, our bullion numbers remain untouched when it comes to market share over the last two years. Some recent activity on changing, you know, expiry dates and so on in the energy segment is leading to some kind of a shallow one day in a month activity. I think it's also quite misaligned with the sort of global structuring on which our contracts are based. You know, that is required for the integrity of the contract.
At this stage, you know, I think we don't want to be reacting and making any moves which are not cognizant with the way commodity products should operate. Being highly focused on the space, we understand the structuring of these products and what the market needs. We, we will stay focused on A continuing to drive participation in the existing portfolio and looking at what the market needs by way of new products. Creating that awareness, bringing in new participants, creating more hedgers, all of those core actions are in play and I think they're keeping us in good stead.
Thanks a lot. ma'am, one more question, regarding RBI, you know, launching new lending norms for prop traders. I just wanted to understand if you have done any sort of analysis on the sort of volumes that will be hit or maybe what sort of volumes are coming in from, small prop traders versus big prop traders, if we have any numbers around that.
The RBI lending norms, the way we see it, could have a potential impact. RBI, of course, has given, you know, further extension, allowing the market to plan their mitigating factors, and we are also in touch and working with our members on the same. There will be a certain segment of members across, you know, all segments of the trading markets, who will have, you know, some of their credit lines, you know, impacted from this.
Okay. Thank you, ma'am. That's all. That's all from my side.
Okay.
Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Makarand Bhosekar from Proinvest Nirmiti. Please go ahead.
Hello, am I audible?
Yes.
Hello. Congratulations on good set of numbers. As we see a very good sequential growth in numbers, top line, I was expecting a kind of better expansion in margins, but somehow the product license fees and other expenses line items grew faster than the revenue, so we could not see the expected margin expansion. Can you tell me if there is any one-off in these line items or we can expect these as a normal base?
Makarand, thank you. You know, Makarand, we are in growth phase, and, you know, we are looking at actions to keep the market very, very relevant and to look at how we really develop the commodity markets to meet the requirements of the industry as well as the country as we have to mature and have more sophisticated offerings available across the board. We have to keep our technology expense, our expense on our investments on people. All of these elements have to be built out, continue to be built out, to be ready to execute the plans that we have. If you're asking whether, you know, our focus is going to be on margins in the coming months. Our focus will be on efficiency.
Our focus will be on ensuring that whatever we do is done in a manner that is most efficient on cost and smart. The focus is not gonna be on spending less. We have to continue to spend smart and do the right thing to be prepared for the future.
Okay. There was no one-off item, right?
No.
Okay. Thank you. My next question is, as you said in the first answering the first question that you are expecting to the momentum to be continued. When we look at April numbers, the volume seems to have dipped down quite a bit. Do you think that we will be able to continue the sequential momentum?
We do believe that we will have a strong year. Now, will every year, every quarter be a big jump over the previous quarter? Perhaps, not. We do see cyclicity in our business. We have seen that year-on-year, where there are some quarters that are better than other quarters. There'll be macro factors that will play out. There will be cyclicity that plays out. I think in the, in the broader context, we are in a strong and good place.
Okay, cool. Thank you. All the best.
Thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Lavanya from UBS. Please go ahead.
Hello. Thank you for the opportunity, ma'am. Congratulations on good set of numbers. Most of my questions are answered. Just wanted to check on some of the cost line items. Software support charges, I mean it has been quite stable compared to the jump which we have seen last year in Q4. Second is on the SGF spend. This time we have taken a much higher contribution to SGF. How should one see this trend going ahead?
Hi, Lavanya. This is Chandresh. The SGF spend is more to keep our reserve fund in a healthy position so that it helps us in taking some decisions and mitigate risk. We always maintain the SGF at a healthy level, and we'll continue to do that. It is in line with what we see the business going up and how it is growing. Also, SGF is a requirement of SEBI, and it is computed based on the formula and calculation methodology given by SEBI. I think the other question you already answered that it is very much in line.
Software support.
Software support.
Okay, software support charges should be stable and incremental from here and most likely we should see no jump in Q4. Is that something one should build in?
Yeah, like ma'am explained in the previous call, previous caller's response, so we are into growth phase, and we will keep investing in the business as and when what is required. The only thing is that it will be done very efficiently. When the business requirement is there, expenses will be incurred.
Got it. Thank you so much. All the best.
Thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Vedant Agarwal from IIFL. Please go ahead.
Hey. Hi. First of all, congrats on a great set of numbers. I wanted to understand two bookkeeping numbers. What has been the interest income on margin money for 4Q FY 2026 and for the whole year FY 2026? I also wanted to again touch upon other expenses, like we have seen a sharp jump in 4Q. What has been the key driver behind this? These are the two questions.
This quarter we have seen some increase in the margin money in terms of cash with the subsidiary, and that has helped in some increase in the income from that. Sorry, it is INR 59 crores in this quarter as against INR 22 crores of previous year.
Okay, INR 59 crores in this quarter versus INR 22 crores of last year.
Quarter 4.
Quarter 4, okay. Also if you could justify the increase in other expenses for this quarter.
I think Ma'am already answered in the one of the previous response that the expenses are incurred to meet our market development activities and business-related professional charges.
Okay, fine. Thank you so much. That answers the question.
Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Bharat Shah from BCS Capital Ideas Limited. Please go ahead.
Thank you, Praveena , and hearty congratulations for very distinguished and defining results. I have two questions. The first one, in this very, what prima facie appears to be a renewal kind of scenario where volumes are rising rapidly. We have increased number of market intermediaries. We have increased number of clients through those intermediaries. Our products, product engine is working well. All of this is resulting into dramatic growth rates across our product lines and the businesses. In such a renewal very positive scenario, what can go wrong if something is to go wrong? What can actually unravel or disturb the kind of great velocity that the engine has acquired?
No, I think it's a fantastic question. And we of course track all risks at every stage. Certainly operating risk is number 1, and I think we've spoken in the past at length that, you know, while the market offers opportunities, the ability to operate and deliver to that opportunity is really not something one takes for granted. Whether it is the platform, whether it is our surveillance, whether it is our risk management, the operations of CCL when it comes to margins and collateral, each and every element of this gets challenged when there is a high degree of uncertainty in the market.
This is a risk we are very cognizant of, I would say we spend most of our time on, in addition to all the other levers that you spoke about. I would think this is a hidden lever to add to that list. The second is certainly the competition risk. I think this question was asked. We are cognizant that we have not had a strong competition really, and have been a majority market share player. How to continue to be agile on our toes, continue to innovate, you know, sort of challenge ourselves, and really be our own, you know, competitor is the best way to stave that off. Certainly, that risk again holds a lot of our attention. Of course, I can go with a long list.
Regulatory risk, et cetera, being an MII, our, you know, entire focus on working within the compliance framework. Again, something that takes a lot of our attention with a strong compliance team, our investor services and relations, et cetera, et cetera. I think this will, if you ask me, probably, cover the top ones.
Praveena Ji, I did not mean routine or regular threats. Whether management competence will be there to match the competition, obviously, that remains an ongoing issue of vigil, both within MCX as well as by the outside investors. Whether there can be regulatory oversight which can curtail the remit of the business. Obviously, certain such issues will always be there in the horizon. I did not really mean things of this kind. I mean operational routine risk, competitive risk, these are given. I mean, they have to be there for any good management to deal with and to fight on. What I meant was, for example, if you look at IEX, the energy exchange, out of blue, the market coupling issue has come.
That has very clearly derailed the situation because market price discovery is the key function of an exchange. When that gets taken away, then the role of liquidity and management in order to facilitate that efficient discovery becomes commoditized, and therefore exchange becomes commoditized. We are seeing how IEX is struggling with that issue. If you look at, for example, in the equity markets, three years back, in the options, the share of BSE was next to nothing. I mean, it was just a shade above zero. Today, in about 3 and a half years, it has climbed to, on an incremental basis, to almost about 37%, 38%. I mean, that kind of a change is truly a dramatic one.
Issues which are not in the realm of recognition, because when things are good and healthy, risks don't look very real, and they appear distant in the horizon. That's actually where the risk is often lies.
Yeah. Bharat Ji, Yeah, sorry. In the interest of time, if you may come in, I think I get what you're saying. I think I sort of touched upon those. I think the examples that you gave are in the realm of uncontrollables. I think we will be unable to really comment or really react to that question.
Okay. There is nothing that you are aware of or worried about.
Sorry to interrupt.
No, I'm just finishing my first question. Please allow me to complete. Is there anything in the realm of recognition that you are concerned about or worried about?
No, we are not worried.
Okay
About anything specific.
Okay. My second and last question.
Sorry to interrupt, Mr. Shah. May we request you to keep the questions brief, as I believe there are questions. This is not the first question.
This is the first question in the context of which I raised the question. If you can allow me to complete it will be faster.
Sir, may we request you to return to the queue.
Okay, fine. Thank you
for any follow-up questions. Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Bhavya Sanghvi from Alchemy Capital. Please go ahead.
Congratulations on a great set of numbers. Most of my questions have been answered. Just one bookkeeping question. Can you give me the transaction charges for the quarter and split it up between options and futures? Thank you.
Bhavya, future revenue for Q4 is INR 242 crores and options revenue is INR 569 crores.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Subrahmanya, an individual investor. Please go ahead.
Hello, ma'am. Congrats on the great set of numbers. My questions have been previously answered. Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Dharmil Shah from Dalmus Capital Management. Please go ahead.
Hi. Firstly, congratulations on the great results. My first question would be on the similar lines like previous participants have enquired about the competition. Like Bharat Shah mentioned that equity exchanges are getting into not just the largest one, but the other one has also shown some interest in getting into the commodity side. Just wanted to check, I mean, what are the key factors or drivers that would change retailers mindset to shift from retailers or, when rather any trader to shift from MCX to other exchanges? I mean, what incremental do these exchanges have to offer so that they gain some market share?
Yeah. Hi, Dharmil. As I said, of course, competition is critical to watch out for and we should not take the competitive stance lightly. As equity exchanges enter into the commodity space, there could be some, you know, natural sort of synergies they have there. However, the biggest moat really is the liquidity we have in our contracts. While it may be a tad easier, not much, as I said, we've done a lot of work on user journeys and so on and so forth, and we continue to do so. While there could be a tad easier, the real benefit for any participant arises from the fact that they are there in a liquid exchange.
They can enter and exit as they require and they benefit from the overall investing or trading activity. I think these are critical for us and we think these are the biggest moats that we have. We'll continue to work in the space without ignoring the fact that we should overcompensate for any experiential simplicity that may be available to users otherwise.
Understood. Last question would be, again, I there is one article in the newspaper today about some regulations being relaxed for agri-commodities. Do you think that could scale up in coming years? What could be the size as percentage? Could it be as big as energy or bullion or just a rough sense there.
Sorry, I don't think this, you know there is this article, but I'm not able to comment on the backdrop to it. Of course, we are in discussions and working groups with the industry and the regulator to look at various kind of policies that the industry and market requires. Agriculture is one of them. We are participating, and I think whatever opens up in that space will be beneficial. We will also be looking at how we play a stronger role there. I wouldn't be in a position to share more than this at this point, please.
No worries. Thank you. Now just jumping back to the first question. You mentioned that liquidity is the core thing that MCX has for commodity derivatives, but like in case of equities as well, I mean, BSE had gained within two years from when they had also zero liquidity in that sense. What could go wrong in MCX as well? I mean, I just wanted to understand that. Liquidity, if these exchanges are coming up with more innovative products which might seem more attractive to the investors, then could the liquidity over time, I mean, build up for them as well?
You know, I think, we gave our comments earlier that, these are uncontrollables that, you know, we will not really be commenting on. At this stage, the commodity market, you know, is at a fairly nascent to high growth stage. Certain actions might take place in mature markets with different objectives. Having said that, this is not a space that we can really comment on. It's not an actionable in our control.
Got it. Got it. Thank you so much for answering, and all the best. Yeah.
Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we request everyone to limit themselves to only two questions each per participant and rejoin the queue for any follow-up questions. Our next question comes from the line of Madhukar from JP Morgan. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good evening. Thank you for taking my question. Ma'am just, one question. On SGF, how comfortable are we with the SGF position right now? What is our sort of continuing policy in terms of what percentage of transaction charges are we contributing? Have you put out that number in definitively part of? Yeah. That's my question. Thanks.
Yeah. On SGF right now we're in a comfortable position. We have a very good cushion on SGF.
Madhukar, we have not put out any % or anything of transaction charges for SGF.
Got it. Is there sort of a number in terms of what volume option premium or futures that we would be comfortable with and beyond which we would require, I know, some simplistic measure to just know that?
Madhukar it's just not a function of numbers, it's also a function of volatility and the margin levels. It's a combination of everything. As volatility would increase or volumes would increase simultaneously and Y would increase, then only would the SGF requirement increase. It's very difficult to predict all the moving parts altogether. Having said that, we are in a very comfortable position regarding SGF, and as and when we have the requirement, we'll plan for it.
Understood.
Sorry to interrupt. Sorry to interrupt, Madhukar.
Is there a number that you would recommend for your modeling purpose?
Sorry to interrupt, Madhukar. May we request you return to the queue for any follow-up questions, please? Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Madhu Gupta from Quantum AMC. Please go ahead.
Thanks for taking my question. Congratulations for a good set of numbers. I just have two questions. First is, what is the revenue that you've earned from the electricity derivative contract, I mean, the transaction charge which started in FY 2026, the trading of electricity derivatives? That's first question. Second question is, you recently won the license to set up a coal exchange. What is the roadmap there? What is the addressable market size, and how do you plan to, you know, set up the exchange and Yeah, if you could share some plans regarding that. Those are my two questions. Thanks.
Yeah. Electricity contracts are still in early stage. At this stage, rather than tracking revenue, we look at the membership, onboarding, trading throughput, so on and so forth. We are happy. We've got about 50 participants from the commercial participant side and a large number of members who contribute and trade. The UCC numbers also are going up month on month. When it comes to coal, the coal exchange is an independent entity. It will not be part of MCX as a company. It'll operate as a subsidiary. Since we are an MII under the regulatory ambit of SEBI, we require the SEBI approval to go forward in this line of business.
The line of business we see is closely associated with what we do as a commodity derivatives exchange. Establishing a spot market in coal where there is a mechanism that exists. However, there is a lot of opportunity for structuring, consolidation, common platform, pan-India and so on. I think that's the opportunity we are looking at, and we are in the early stage of establishing that entity and taking it forward. At the right time, of course, the suitable regulator in that space will then form the rules. We'll have to apply and et cetera, et cetera. There is, there are steps left before the actual entity starts getting operational.
Okay. Thanks. Thanks.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Deepak Ajmera from IGE India. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Congratulations on good set of number and excellent leadership. My question is on electricity derivative. Ideally, the potential for this market is significant and what sort of initiative, whether it is ministry, exchange regulator or anything to develop this market that on that you are working, if you can highlight, that will be helpful. Thank you.
Thank you, Deepak. I think we are very excited about the electricity contract. Right from launch to date, it has been growing month-on-month in its participation and presence in the market. We do work with the regulators, both SEBI and CERC, more importantly, a lot of work with the state regulators, because a lot of policy really comes from the state. Converting few DISCOMs is a very important part of the plan. It takes more time, I think we are at a point where some of that is going to come in as well.
Looking at large traders who operate on the spot market has been important, and those were some of the early steps that have been taken, and we are starting to see some of the members and participants in the power space starting to participate regularly there. Staying engaged with both the production side, be it solar or other producers, the consumer side, a large industrial, as well as the distribution side, are all actions that we are in the midst of.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Amit Chandra from HDFC Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks for, you know, allowing me to ask the question again. Ma'am, I have, like, two follow-up questions. The first is on the, you know, competition. You have answered about that in detail. You know, just to understand better, is it the interoperability of the clearing corporations which is not there between equities and commodities? Is that the main reason why we are not seeing the shift of the liquidity from one exchange to another? You know, what's your view on the regulator allowing interoperability maybe at a later stage? Secondly, on the impact of the RBI regulation.
The I know if you see the clearing corporation, funding from FDs and, you know, the bank guarantees, the total margin, like money that the clearing corporation have, MCX has the highest in terms of 55%-60% of the total, you know, funding of the clearing corporation is through BGs versus 35% for the industry. Is it a, you know, higher risk for us in terms of the impact that we see from RBI? Thank you.
To answer your question on BGs and FDs, frankly, for FDs it wouldn't make a difference because it is fully funded by FDs. In terms of BGs, I think your numbers are wrong. BGs contribute a much lower percentage than FDs. While there may be an impact, but the numbers do not impact as much as you are saying.
I'm talking about FDs and BGs combined. We don't have the bifurcation, but yeah.
Yeah. You see the large portion, the largest portion of that is FDs, so I don't think that would get affected to that extent.
Okay.
Secondly, on your interoperability questions, liquidity does not just go away due to interoperability. It is just a matter of liquidity begets liquidity. We have sticky liquidity. We have the industry participating. We have everyone, all the ingredients which help that. You have to understand secondly that interoperability is only possible when there is a 100% similar product. For example, in equity, the ISIN of the security is the same. That is why interoperability can be possible. In commodities may be different.
Okay. Like interoperability will not happen between equities and commodity, right?
No, we're not saying that. We're just saying that end of the day it's up to the regulator, but it's tougher to happen.
Okay. Okay, sir. Thank you, and all the best.
Thank you. We will take the last question from the line of Devesh Agarwal from IIFL Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thank you for the opportunity again, ma'am. Just one question, ma'am. We see that this has been a very strong year for us in terms of profit accretion and cash accretion. Despite that, we have seen that the payouts have kind of gone down. Just wanted to know your thoughts as to this cash that we are kind of conserving. What are exactly the plans for this, and what is the spend that we are expecting for the next year?
Yeah. No, no, good question, Devesh. I think it's important for us to have the sort of funding chest that is required as we look at our growth. This is not just from from more of the same standpoint. There would be both organic, inorganic opportunities that we will continue to be looking at. New product segments, ancillary spaces. There are certain strategies that are at the very early stage. We do have strong plans for the capital on hand.
All right, ma'am. Thank you so much, and all the very best.
Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, I would now like to hand the conference over to Ms. Praveena Rai, MD and CEO, MCX, for her closing comments.
Yeah. Thank you. Thank you to all. It is a phenomenal set of questions. As always, we answer some and you also leave us with a lot of food for thought to take back as we look at execution of our plans for this year and the coming quarter. I really enjoyed the discussion. All of us did. Have a good day, and look forward to connecting next time.
Thank you. On behalf of Multi Commodity Exchange of India Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you everyone for joining us. You may now disconnect your lines.