Alan Whiting, who sadly passed away in June 2015, made a significant and lasting contribution to the futures industry in three core areas – as Head of Financial Regulation at Her Majesty's Treasury in the early to mid-1990s; as Executive Director of Regulation and Compliance at the London Metal Exchange from 1997 to 2004; and then latterly as Chairman of NYSE Life from 2012 to 2015. While at HM Treasury he oversaw the structure, legislation and oversight of the UK's banking and financial services regulation, playing a key role in developing financial regulation reform and the creation of the Financial Services Authority, which became the FCA.
It was for his role at LME that he is perhaps best known. He was appointed to the role in 1997 in the wake of the Sumitomo copper trading affair, tasked with enhancing the exchange’s regulation and compliance function and beginning the process of restoring confidence in the market. The cornerstone of this restoration was the implementation of a series of policies and measures that arose from 1998 landmark document “Market Aberrations: The Way Forward.” The most important of these measures was the introduction of the Lending Guidance, used to this day by the LME to deal with dominant positions at the exchange. During his time at LME, he was also at the forefront of the introduction of LME Select, the exchange's electronic trading system, in 2001.
In addition to his position on the Liffe Board, he also held non-executive directorships on a number of boards, including The Banking Standards Board and NYMEX Europe Ltd.
