“The operator of the London gold price benchmark said on Thursday it formally started the process to find a new administrator for the century-old mechanism that will halt the telephone call that four institutions enter twice a day in favour of an electronic solution.
The London Gold Market Fixing Ltd (LGMFL), along with the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA), said in a statement that the choice will be announced in October, and implementation will be complete by the end of 2014.
The price-setting process, also known as the fix, has been used by producers, consumers and investors to trade gold and value their shares since 1919.
A similar process to find a new price benchmark administrator recently took place in the silver market. That yielded an electronic auction mechanism that replaced a daily conference call with three banks on Aug. 15.
As it happened for silver, the LBMA is again launching a consultation among market participants, including central banks, miners and refiners, to assess how they would like the new price mechanism to be derived.”
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