As at end October 2020, there were an all-time high of 9,350 tonnes of gold, valued at a record $565.7 billion. This represented the sixth consecutive monthly increase in gold stocks. There were also 33,440 tonnes of silver, valued at $25.4 billion. This equates to approximately 747,974 gold bars and 1,114,667 silver bars.
The data represents the holdings of seven custodians offering vaulting services (all of which are LBMA members) and the Bank of England. The seven custodians comprise four security carriers (Brinks, G4S Cash Solutions (UK), Malca-Amit and Loomis International Ltd) and three clearing banks (HSBC, ICBC Standard Bank and JP Morgan). Also included are the gold holdings held at the Bank of England (not an LBMA member) which offers gold (but not silver) custodial services to central banks and certain commercial firms that facilitate central bank access to the liquidity of the London gold market. Those clearing members without their own vault operations - Scotiabank and UBS - utilise their accounts with one of the LBMA custodians or the Bank of England and therefore do not contribute to the statistics to avoid double accounting.
The historical monthly data series from July 2016, as well as other information on the London physical vault holdings can be found here on LBMA’s website.
Daily Averages Gold Clearing Data- October 2020
The volume of ounces transferred in October decreased by 16.2% month on month (m/m) to 15.8 mn ounces, its lowest level for five years, with the corresponding value down 17.2% to $30 bn. There were 4,156 transfers in October, 11% lower m/m, with the clearers settling on average 3,794 ounces per transfer, 5.9% lower m/m.
Daily Averages Silver Clearing Data - October 2020
The volume of ounces transferred in October decreased by 21.5% to 226.7 mn ounces, its lowest level since August 2019, with the corresponding value transferred decreasing by 26.5% m/m to $5.5 bn. The number of transfers in October decreased by 34% m/m to 1,497, with the clearers settling on average 151,423 ounces per transfer, 19% higher m/m.
The average gold / silver price ratio jumped from 74.3 in September to 78.4 in October.
Both the vault data and the clearing statistics are published on the first day of each month (in the event that the first day of the month is a UK Bank Holiday or falls on a weekend, the data will be published on the first business day of the month).