Major shift coming in gold market

Changes to the gold market price fix is on the horizon, and will mark the first change in almost a century. The new method aims to better detail China’s seemingly insatiable demand for the yellow metal.

The London Gold Fix, the widely used pricing process that has been around since 1919, will make way for a new electronic auction to set the gold price. The aim is to make the fix more transparent, allow a greater number of participants, and to end the alleged decades of manipulations.

The London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) marked Friday (March 20th) as the launch date for the LBMA Gold Price, with the ICE Benchmark Administration managing the auction process.

It’s thought that the new process will allow China to directly take part in setting the new price fix, which it’s hoped will lift the secretive veil over China’s gold consumption.

China, the world’s second largest economy, is one of the largest gold buyers and is reluctant to detail its inflows and outflows of the precious metal.