The Bahrain Financial Exchange (BFX) expects to begin trading on its conventional platform in the next two weeks after delaying a scheduled launch because of political unrest, its top executive said.

BFX, owned by India's Financial Technologies, was launched in February this year as a multi-asset exchange aiming to offer trading in both conventional and Islamic products in equities, derivatives, commodities and currencies.

It launched its Islamic platform on Feb. 7 and was planning to begin trading of conventional assets a month later, but had to scale back on the plans as violence erupted in the tiny non-OPEC oil-producing country.

"We have a date in mind and we should launch the platform in a couple of weeks," Arshad Khan, managing director and chief executive of BFX, told Reuters.

BFX will remain in Bahrain despite the political situation which was a short-term event, the executive said.

"When our shareholders set up this exchange, they did it with a long-term plan. We are licensed in Bahrain and we have a lot of support from the government here," Khan said.

BFX had planned to begin operations in the first quarter of 2010 but delayed its launch last year citing sluggish market sentiment.

It aims to compete with the Bahrain Stock Exchange and other bourses in the region such as Nasdaq Dubai.

The bourse had also signed an agreement with Bursa Malaysia to study a common platform on which Islamic finance products such as commodity murabaha can be traded.

Bahrain's waning status as a financial hub took another blow this year when sweeping political unrest in the Gulf Arab region spread to the Gulf nation.

Its main exchange, which handles minuscule amounts of trades compared with other regional exchanges, was forced to shut down and move to a different location amid the protests. – Reuters