The London Metal Exchange (LME) has released a white paper slamming the upcoming European Union (EU) regulations as damaging to its trading specialty. The venue says that the risks in metals trading are different from those in the financial markets, and if regulation is not tailored accordingly, we could see irreparable damage to the wider industry.

“The LME supports EU regulators’ aims to increase transparency and reduce risk in the markets. However, requiring the metals industry to comply with regulation that is designed for other, completely different, asset classes may stifle participants’ ability to create global reference prices and manage their price risk,” said Garry Jones, LME CEO.

The wide scope of the new rules means that many in the metal markets, such as commodity traders, could face stringent new EU rules for the first time. However, in its paper the LME says it seems little attention has been focused by regulators on how the new rules will affect the metals markets in particular.

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“The LME is working with regulators to ensure that the cumulative effect of these rules on the metal trading community is not underestimated. Meanwhile, the implementation dates of many of these rules are rapidly approaching, and participants throughout the metals value chain should be thinking about what the changes mean for their business,” said Kirstina Combe, Head of Regulation.