LME chief: bourse could revamp margining after nickel kerfuffle

The London Metal Exchange (LME) may end its unusual policy of allowing clearing members to net initial and variation margin calls – a method aimed at reducing the funding burden of metals hedges on producers – as the bourse grapples with heavy criticism of its handling of extraordinary price moves in its nickel contracts in the wake of Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Clearing houses typically levy both daily initial margin – a set amount of a contract’s value paid in cash or non-cash alternatives to