Metal traders would have been hit with “multiple defaults” had the London Metal Exchange not cancelled trades on 8 March, the exchange’s chief executive Matthew Chamberlain said.

“If we called margins at those levels, that would have been a margin call unprecedented in the history of the LME,” he told a Futures Industry Association event on 7 June. “We had very significant concerns about the ability of market participants to meet those margins. And therefore, concerns of multiple defaults.”