Japan TOCOM eyes more bourse ties after TSE deal

TOKYO, Jan 16 (Reuters) - The Tokyo Commodity Exchange is open to signing deals with other bourses after joining forces with the country's top stock exchange to develop new products, the TOCOM chairman said on Wednesday.

"We are keen to build more of such win-win relations with other exchanges," TOCOM Chairman Masaaki Nangaku told a news conference.

The Japanese government is trying to lower barriers between commodities and financial markets and promote cross-market products to raise global competitiveness by providing a wider range of products to investors.

Turnover on Japan's commodity markets has fallen steadily in recent years, even though the rest of the world has enjoyed a commodity trading boom.

Japan's top commodities-specialised exchange and the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) [TSE.UL] signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on Wednesday to develop commodities-linked exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to be traded on the TSE.

TOCOM has signed 11 MOUs with overseas exchanges such as the New York Mercantile Exchange and the Shanghai Futures Exchange, and one domestically with the Tokyo Financial Exchange Inc.

Nangaku said TOCOM has not received any formal requests from other exchanges for such agreements.

TOCOM has held several meetings with the Osaka Securities Exchange (8697.OJ: Quote, Profile, Research), Japan's No. 2 bourse, but the two have no plan to sign an accord yet, Nangaku said.

In August, Japan's first ETF tracking a gold price index was launched on the Osaka exchange, with the price based on dollar-based bullion prices in London [GOL/FIX], not on TOCOM gold futures prices. Industry sources say that is because there is more liquidity in the London market.