In March of this year, the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) released a series of short videos about various aspects of the London precious metals markets and the role the LBMA claims to plays in those markets.

It is the ‘Who we Are’ and ‘How the Market Works’ videos which are worth discussing in the context that neither answers the questions that their titles suggest.

The five banks that settle every transaction in London’s $6.8 trillion a year gold market are changing the rules of their clearing house to make it easier for newcomers to join.

The reform is part of a broad overhaul of institutions that underpin the world’s largest bullion trading center to make them more transparent after accusations of price manipulation by banks and traders and pressure from regulators.

The Moscow Exchange will launch deliverable futures for gold in 2018 in a move to further prop up bullion market liquidity, bourse chief executive Alexander Afanasiev said on Thursday.

These deliverable futures will be denominated in roubles and the weight will be measured in grams, said Igor Marich, who oversees the bourse’s money and derivatives market.

On 29 August, the London Metal Exchange (LME) began publication of a set of daily reference prices for gold and silver. These reference prices aim to capture and reflect paper gold and silver market prices as at 10:30 am, 12:00 midday, and 3:00 pm London time.

More important, the float the giant stockpile of gold that underlies trading is heavily concentrated in the city. More than 7,000 tons of gold and 32,000 tons of silver, collectively worth almost $320 billion, are stored in hidden vaults managed by the Bank of England, JPMorgan Chase & Co., HSBC Holdings Plc, ICBC Standard Bank Plc and others, the LBMA said. And as long as the gold’s here, and the industry is willing to adapt to change, London will probably remain a force in the gold market.

CME raises Gold Margins by 6%

CME raises gold & silver margins by approx 8%

The LBMA vault holding data outlined below represent the volume of Loco London gold and silver held in the London vaults offering custodian services. As at 31 March, 2017 there were 7,449 tonnes of gold, valued at $298 billion and 32,078 tonnes of silver valued at $19 billion. This equates to approximately 596,000 gold bars and 1,069,255 silver bars.

The London Metal Exchange (LME) will start publishing gold and silver reference prices, the exchange told Reuters on Tuesday, potentially challenging the dominance of benchmarks administered by Intercontinental Exchange (ICE).

With the London Gold Market trading unlimited quantities of unallocated gold which the bullion banks create out of thin air, and with COMEX trading gold futures which are also created out of thin air, the disconnect between the world of unlimited paper gold and the world of limited physical gold is becoming ever more stark.

On one side lies paper claims on gold which come into and out of existence through cash-settled market mechanisms. On the other is real physical gold that is segregated, allocated and unencumbered, with full title held by the gold holder. Paper gold ownership is fleeting, speculative and prone to counterparty and conversion risks. Real gold is tangible, has inherent value, has no counterparty risk, and can be securely stored.