The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), Asia?s oldest stock exchange, is in the process of recruiting a number of middle-level management officials in the derivatives segment to compete with rival National Stock Exchange (NSE), which currently dominates the derivatives market share.

Senior officials at BSE told FE, “The exchange conducted senior management recruitment in June and is now hiring people from various broking houses and investment banks to boost their derivatives segment.” Recent BSE hires include three senior officials — James E Shapiro, who was appointed head of market development; Sayee Srinivasan, appointed head of product strategy, and Nehal Vora, head of planning and policy.

Despite repeated attempts, BSE officials did not respond to the queries on upcoming hires. However, market players sense that with NSE as the market leader in the derivatives segment and with the entry of MCX SX to start equities trading, including derivatives, BSE wants to retain its business.

Recently, there have also been reports about a revamp at the BSE. “The aggressive approach of BSE in recruiting people for the derivatives segment shows they are looking to improve their market share in the segment. In the past few months, in addition to senior-level recruitment, there has also been various mid and junior-level recruitments in other departments of the exchange. Several other initiatives are also taking place to reposition BSE as the market leader,” said a BSE official related with the development.

For instance, in May, Madhu Kannan joined the exchange as managing director and CEO. Recently, BSE also got approval from market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India to launch in the next six to eight weeks “interest rate futures” or financial derivatives with an interest-bearing instrument as the underlying asset.

Last month, BSE picked up 15% in the United Stock Exchange (USE) of India. USE is a unique, public-private partnership with equity investment by both PSUs and private sector. USE has 16 of the most respected names in the Indian business and finance, including Allahabad bank, HDFC, PNB and Bank of India.

A market player said on a cautious note, “We have to wait and watch how things will shape up in the coming days for BSE, as stiff competition from NSE in derivatives segment will persist.”