London Bullion Market Association (LBMA)

The London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) was founded in 1987 by the, the Bank of England as an independent body to assist with the maintenance of the Good Delivery List and the London Gold Market and London Silver Market. It is the trade association for the ‘over the counter’ gold and silver market in London.

As the leading authority on the gold and silver markets, the LBMA holds the intellectual property rights to the silver and gold price auctions which are set twice a day. A common trading price is set in pounds (GBP) sterling, dollars (USD) and euros (EUR) by the ICE Benchmark Administration (IBA) at 10:30 GMT and then once more at 15:00 GMT.

This electronic method, launched in 2015, replaced the ‘London Gold Fix’ process that had been running since 1919. Click here to find out more about the LBMA Gold Price.

Membership

The London Bullion Market Association is made up of many member companies around the world with connections to the London gold and silver markets. Traders, brokers, refiners, mining companies and assaying companies are some of the types of companies that comprise the membership of the LBMA.

Some members of the London Bullion Market Association are classified as being ‘Market Makers’. Market Makers are members of the LBMA that are responsible for quoting bid and offer prices to each other during the London business day, for agreed minimum quantities in gold and silver in order to set the price.

View the current membership list of the LBMA.

LBMA Good Delivery Rules

The LBMA’s Good Delivery Rules are considered the international regulatory standard for gold and silver bullion.

The standard LBMA gold bar weighs around 400 troy ounces, and must have a minimum purity of 995.0 parts/ thousand fine gold (99.5%). They must be marked with a serial number, the refiner’s hallmark, its fineness and the year of production.

Silver bullion bars are required to contain 999.0 parts/ thousand silver (99.9%) and must show the same marks.

LBMA Good Delivery List

It is only natural that an investor wants to be assured of the quality of their gold bars and to know that their investment gold meets the Good Delivery standards set by the LBMA. The Good Delivery List is a regularly reviewed list of the refiners whose adherence to the industry standards has been acknowledge by the LBMA. It is widely accepted as the point of reference when looking for a creditable, high quality gold refiner.

Given BullionByPost’s commitment to quality, three of our gold bar suppliers - PAMP, Heraeus and Metalor - not only appear on the Good Delivery List, but are also three of only five accredited Good Delivery Referees; companies given the authority to supervise, assess and advise refineries on the list to ensure their adherence to the LBMA standards.