LBMA: the London Bullion Market Association

What does the LBMA do?

The LBMA is a membership organisation. Its members come from the entire value chain: banks, dealers, refiners, vault operators and service providers. It sees itself as an independent authority that sets standards and represents the market to governments, regulators and investors.

It was formed in 1987. At the time, the Bank of England supervised the London precious metals market and concluded that maintaining the list of accepted bars required a separate organisation. The company was incorporated on 14 December 1987. The LBMA took over the tasks of the former London Gold Market and London Silver Market, which had organised trading until then.

• Maintaining the Good Delivery Lists for gold and silver
• The Global Precious Metals Code as the code of conduct for the wholesale market
• The Responsible Sourcing Programme with annual independent audits of refiners
• Publishing market data, for example on vault holdings

What is a Good Delivery bar?

In the London wholesale market, gold moves in the form of large standard bars. A Good Delivery gold bar contains between 350 and 430 troy ounces of gold, roughly 10.9 to 13.4 kilograms; around 400 ounces is typical. The fineness must be at least 995.0 parts per thousand.

The shape is also roughly specified: the recommended dimensions are around 250 millimetres long, 70 millimetres wide and 35 millimetres high, each with tolerances. Every bar carries a serial number, the refiner’s stamp, the fineness and the year of manufacture. Only refiners on the Good Delivery List may supply such bars, and they must comply with the LBMA’s Responsible Sourcing Programme. The London vaults accept only bars that meet this standard. Silver has its own standard, with bars of around 1,000 ounces.

How does clearing through LPMCL work?

Most trades in the London market do not result in bars changing vaults. Instead, they are settled through unallocated accounts: the customer has a claim to a certain quantity of gold, but not to specific bars. The LBMA estimates that probably more than 90% of wholesale trading runs through such accounts.

Settlement between the banks is handled by London Precious Metals Clearing Limited (LPMCL). Its members hold unallocated accounts with one another and balance purchases and sales daily by book entry. According to the LBMA, four members offer these clearing services: HSBC, ICBC Standard Bank, JPMorgan Chase and UBS. Since 2017, the LBMA has carried out administrative tasks for LPMCL.

Anyone who wants to own specific bars uses an allocated account instead. The bars are then assigned to the customer by number and weight and held separately.

Who are the LBMA Market Makers?

The LBMA has three kinds of membership: full members, affiliate members and market makers. According to its member directory it has 91 full members and 95 affiliates from 27 countries, plus 12 market makers (as of 6 November 2026).

Market makers have the same rights as full members. In addition, they commit to quoting each other firm buy and sell prices in gold and silver during the London business day, for spot, forwards or options. Those offering all three products are called full market makers. Deutsche Bank has been a market maker in all three products since 20 March 2026.

Other important members

Besides the big banks, the LBMA’s members include refiners, mints, dealers, security carriers, assayers and exchanges. The selection below shows well-known names from the directory. Membership is not the same as being on the Good Delivery List: the list covers a refiner’s bars, membership covers the company.

Silver Bullion, which operates The Reserve vault in Singapore and is Spargold’s storage partner, is also an LBMA member, as an affiliate in the trader category. The LBMA publishes the complete, current directory on its website.

How much gold is stored in London?

The LBMA publishes the holdings of the London vaults every month, with a one-month delay. At the end of September 2026, they held 9,821 tonnes of gold worth around US$1.3 trillion. That equals about 785,690 standard bars. In addition, there were 28,985 tonnes of silver worth US$56.6 billion. The data series begins in July 2016 and is published on the fifth business day of the following month.

The figures cover the commercial vaults that offer custody to customers, as well as the gold the Bank of England holds for itself and for other central banks. Only metal inside London’s M25 orbital motorway is counted, in all forms from large bars to coins. Jewellery is not included, nor are holdings of dealers, private individuals and smaller vaults outside the London clearing system.

Why does the standard matter for private investors?

Even if you are not trading kilo bars, you will come across the LBMA. The Good Delivery List is also a guide when choosing smaller bars: it shows which refiners meet the LBMA standard and are audited regularly. It says nothing about the price.

According to Spargold, it sources audited LBMA bars directly from refiners and stores them in the free trade zone vault ‘The Reserve’ in Singapore.