LONDON, Sept 25 (Reuters) - U.S. broker Clear Street is seeking regulatory approvals in Britain to pursue membership of the London Metal Exchange's open-outcry trading floor, a source with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Wednesday.

Clear Street's plan, first reported by Bloomberg news agency, would take the number of dealing members on Europe's last open-outcry venue back to eight after Societe Generale (SOGN.PA) , opens new tab said last month it would leave the LME's trading floor.

Both New York-based Clear Street and the LME, the world's oldest and largest market for industrial metals, declined to comment.

A British unit of the U.S. firm, Clear Street UK Ltd, was incorporated in July 2023, according to government data.

An arm of the broker, Clear Street Futures is headed by Chris Smith, who was previously the London-based head of ED&F Man Capital Markets until it was acquired by Marex in 2022.

Smith founded ED&F Man Capital Markets, which was a ring-dealing member of the LME. He did not reply to a Reuters' request for comment on Wednesday.

The LME, the 147-year-old exchange owned by Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (0388.HK) , opens new tab, proposed closing its trading floor three years ago, joining other financial exchanges that have moved to pure electronic trading, but an outcry from physical LME users saved the ring.

LME now operates on a hybrid basis, with open-outcry trading for official prices used by physical users as benchmarks for their contracts and an electronic system for closing prices.

After Societe Generale's decision to leave the ring, nearly all of the seven remaining firms participating on the floor told Reuters they remained committed to the age-old practice.

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https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/clear-street-seeks-join-london-metal-exchanges-open-outcry-trading-floor-source-2024-09-25/