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

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 ( HKXCF ), 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.