The administrators of the new gold price benchmark issued a consultation paper Tuesday seeking the market’s views on a handful of operational issues.
ICE Benchmark Administration, which operates the new LBMA Gold Price benchmark, launched a consultation on three aspects of its auction process: the approach for determining the benchmark price if the minimum number of market participants are not available; whether the practice of adding a ‘seller’s premium’ to the benchmark price for settlement purposes should continue; and, the usage of gold prices published in currencies other than U.S. dollars (such as British pounds and euros).
The consultation will run until May 1. The IBA says that the benchmark’s oversight committee will consider the feedback it receives, and the IBA will publish the results of the consultation, along with its views on these issues, at some point.
IBA, which became the administrator of the LBMA Gold Price on March 20, reports that since the electronic auction process replaced the traditional submission process for calculating the benchmark, trading volumes have been strong on the ICE platform.