"Two banks have applied to be ICMs of the exchange and their cases have been forwarded to Reserve Bank of India," Coffee Futures Exchange of India (Cofei) business manager PM Narayan Bhat said.

Cofei had cleared applications from Vysya Bank and Abn Amro to become institutional clearance member of the exchange and they were now pending before RBI.

Once these banks become ICMs of the exchange, the volume and turnover at the exchange would increase, he said.

Of the two, Vysya Bank was expected to get RBI clearance soon, Bhat, who was here last week-end for the two-day workshop on commodity futures exchange, said.

Lack of an ICM at the Cofei had led to only one hour daily trading at the exchange, which at present witnesseda trade turnover averaging 100 lots of 600 kg of coffee each.

Only ICMs have the authority to clear sales of trading members at the exchange as they get the necessary guarantee for the clearance. Though there are clearance-cum-trading members at the exchange, they are empowered to clear their purchases only.

An RBI official, when asked about the status of the banks' application, refused to give any details.

Besides, the exchange had also been hampered as software for trading was not ready.

"The software is being developed and should be ready in another 15 days time," Bhat said.

Lack of the software had led to manual operations at the exchange despite having facilities for on-line trading.

"Introduction of the software will give an added boost to trading," he said.

Cofei chairman Ashwin Shah said the exchange had received a tremendous boost in the form of Hindustan Lever becoming a member.

"Nestle also has plans to become member. They have come and seen the facilities," he said.

Bhat saidtrading at Cofei was picking up and there was a lot of interest from the coffee sector.

The interest in the exchange had led Cofei to reopen admission for ordinary membership until October end.

A campaign had also been launched for participation from other parts of the country, he said, adding currently Cofei had 230 ordinary, 65 trading and six trading cum clearing members besides 10 certified warehouses.

On expansion of Cofei to other coffee-growing parts, he said it would be done in the second phase.

"We are planning expansion after six months from now," Bhat added.