* Lobby suggests trader repository on derivatives, OTC
* Also calls for physical markets data, position limits
By Sybille de La Hamaide
PARIS, April 1 (Reuters) - France gained a new ally in its drive to better regulate commodities markets during its G20 presidency when on Friday the French financial markets lobby said regulation should start with information.
Paris Europlace, a private and public body representing major players in the financial markets, said in a report that transparency on both the physical and financial markets was the starting point to limit manipulative trades and speculation.
It put forward eight proposals including the creation of a global trade repository, which would register all financial transactions based on agricultural assets.
"Information seems to be a prerequisite. To have a more complete and real-time outlook of all the data is crucial," Pierre Moraillon, managing director at Credit Agricole Corporate and Investment Banking, who chaired the report, told reporters.
France has put the regulation of commodities markets, mainly agricultural products, at the top of its agenda for heading the Group of 20 economies. It blames speculation in these markets for exacerbating a surge in prices of food staples last year.
Farm minister Bruno Le Maire told Reuters earlier this month that, although it was close to getting a green light on plans to improve transparency on agricultural data, coordination on export policies and emergency stocks, a deal regarding the financial markets would be harder to reach.
Most key observers agree market transparency and data will be at the top of the G20 agriculture conclusions.
TRADE REPOSITORY
In line with France's proposals, Paris Europlace said the market also needed better information on physical markets, something it says would tame volatility. It said the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) could manage such information.
"Today stocks, production, exchanges, even data provided by big states are distorted, arrive six months or one year later or are false, so I would say it is the prerequisite and as important and indispensable as a repository," Moraillon said.
Paris Europlace, which advocates creating a European regulator of agricultural markets, said there was little proof of the link between speculation and volatility.
"But there are exceptions. Brutal entrance and pullout of financial actors in derivative markets can create abnormal situations," Moraillon said.
Setting position limits on derivatives, as long as they do not threaten market liquidity, could be a way to head off brutal moves and market squeezes, the report said.
These limits would differ between types of operators -- those players who do purely financial transactions on an opportunistic basis and those who need to cover physical needs.
The lobby said governments should encourage food storage both in developed countries and to meet potential humantarian needs in developing countries but stressed that these should be managed by private firms.