IntercontinentalExchange (ICE) said Thursday it is implementing a number of “fair trading” initiatives to detect false trades and ensure the validity of trades and prices recorded on its commodity trading platform.

Intercontinental said it will make technical changes to its platform to detect and prevent wash trades from being included in the market data it disseminates. It will use its time stamps to automatically eliminate from publication any and all trades that occur within two minutes to reverse a trade between the same parties in the same contract at the same price.

The company said it also would adopt a trading code of conduct based on the Code of Ethics and Sound Trading Practices for Electric Power Suppliers recently issued by the Electric Power Suppliers Association. Companies wishing to trade on the ICE platform will have to agree to abide by the code. “If an Intercontinental participant violates the Code, Intercontinental will maintain the ability to suspend, permanently expel the participant from its system or take other measures.”

ICE also will require parties to report if they later cancel a transaction that occurred on its platform. In addition it intends to appoint a full-time director to oversee compliance with its fair trading initiatives.

Intercontinental said its own recent investigation concluded that wash trades that were found to have previously occurred on its system were not included in any of its published indices or settlement prices. The trades were “an insignificant 0.005%” of the transactions occurring on its platform, ICE said.

The platform is regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), which requires records be kept for five years. “Intercontinental has concluded that the additional fair trading initiatives, combined with its existing CFTC regulatory oversight will further enhance its ability to prevent these kinds of activities on its platform and ensure the platform’s integrity.” The platform trades more than 600 listed commodity and derivative contract types around the world, including, oil, natural gas and power.

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