The final price is then published as the LBMA Gold Price or LBMA Silver Price in US Dollars and also converted into the benchmarks in British Pounds and Euros using foreign exchange rates from when the final round ended. N.B. the gold and silver auctions settle against US Dollars only. The benchmarks in British Pounds and Euros are not tradeable directly through the auction.

The prices during the auction are determined by an algorithm that takes into account current market conditions and the activity in the auction. Each auction is actively supervised by IBA staff.

Participants also have 30 minutes directly before the auction starts to queue up their orders. This is known as ‘Round zero’.

Central Clearing

The IBA Gold and Silver auctions are centrally cleared which allows a broad range of firms to become Direct Participants (please refer to the section on Participation below).

Central clearing for the auctions is enabled by the ICE Daily Gold and ICE Daily Silver futures contracts. These are physically settled, daily futures contracts for loco London gold and silver.

All Direct Participants must be able to centrally clear futures contracts, but they also have the option to select their preferences for a cleared or bilateral match against each other Direct Participant.

At the end of the auction the volumes are matched up, with priority given to matching the bilateral preferences first, if possible. A firm will receive a bilateral match only where they have set their preference against another Direct Participant to bilateral, and the other Direct Participant has done the same, and there is volume that can be matched between the two firms.

Volume which is not matched and settled bilaterally must be converted into centrally cleared, daily futures contracts submitted to ICE Futures US at the benchmark price via exchange for physical (EFP) trades. These trades will be submitted for the Direct Participant by ICE Metals Broking.

When taken to delivery, the cleared futures contract settles according to the spot convention. The metal is settled as unallocated metal via London Precious Metals Clearing (LPMCL) accounts and the cash component settles at ICE Clear US.

Auction Specifications and Other Documentation

Precious Metals Changes and Cessation Procedure

Gold Auction Specification Document

Silver Auction Specification Document

Precious Metals Error Policy

LBMA Gold & LBMA Silver Prices - How They Work

Precious Metals Benchmark Statement

Methodology ESG Annex

There are two categories of participants in the IBA Precious Metals auctions:

Direct Participants share the imbalance, whereas Indirect Participants do not.

Criteria for becoming a Participant

The criteria for becoming and remaining a Direct or an Indirect Participant are:

Current Auction Participants

The current participants are:

How to Become a Participant

Please contact ICE Benchmark Administration for more information on becoming a participant:

[email protected] or: +44 (0)20 7429 7100

IBA is responsible for ensuring that there is appropriate governance over the IBA Precious Metals Auctions and the LBMA Gold and Silver Price benchmarks, and that the appropriate standards of conduct are met.

IBA does this through the Code of Conduct that all Participants are required to adhere to and through the Precious Metals Oversight Committee which has broad representation from the Gold and Silver markets.

The Oversight Committee’s responsibilities are set out in its Terms of Reference, which include:

Further details on IBA’s general governance structure, including IBA’s independent Board of Directors, whistleblowing policy and other policies are available on IBA’s Governance page.

Members of the Precious Metals Oversight Committee

The members of the committee attend in an individual capacity and are selected to represent different segments of the industry. Committee members are respected industry veterans that bring important product and market expertise to the governance process.

Committee members are selected by IBA’s Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee in accordance with IBA’s Committee Selection Policy. Committee members rotate periodically.

To be considered as a member of the Precious Metals Oversight Committee please email: [email protected].

Minutes of the Oversight Committee

Minutes of previous committee meetings (including the LBMA Gold Price Oversight Committee) are available here:

Consultations

Changes to the methodology are governed by IBA’s consultation policy.

Current and previous consultations are available below:

End of round prices, volumes and imbalances for each auction can be viewed on WebICE and through licensed redistributors during the auction process.

Transparency Reports are also available from IBA and through licensed redistributors, which provide delayed, historical price and volume information for each round of each auction.

There are five types of license for the LBMA Gold and Silver Prices:

Licensing and Technical Documentation and Fee Schedules

IBA Licensing Wizard

Sample LBMA Gold Price File

Sample LBMA Gold Price Transparency Report File

Sample LBMA Gold Price Start of Round File

Sample LBMA Gold Price Interim Round Details File

Sample LBMA Silver Price File

Sample LBMA Silver Price Transparency Report File

Sample LBMA Silver Price Start of Round File

Sample LBMA Silver Price Interim Round Details File

Note: Clients may find it easier to view the contents of the FIXML file using Microsoft Excel to tabulate the data into headed columns. To do this, save the file to your computer, then drag and drop the file onto an open Microsoft Excel window and select 'As an XML table' when presented with the 'Open XML' dialogue box (you may need to click 'OK' again if asked whether to create a schema based on the XML source data).