Gold Bar Integrity

The Gold Bar Integrity (GBI) Initiative is a technology solution that is central to LBMA’s Responsible Sourcing infrastructure for the future. This year, the successful launch of the system marked a significant milestone for LBMA in the journey toward realising its strategic vision for GBI.

GBI currently focuses on the data captured through the Responsible Sourcing Assurances, including Country of Origin and High-Risk Supplier information. The foundation has been laid to expand the scope of data captured in future phases, creating new opportunities to enhance trust and confidence in the market. Regulators, investors, civil society and industry participants alike are set to benefit from the enhanced clarity and accountability GBI brings.

The rollout has been met with remarkable engagement, and all GDL Refiners have now been onboarded to the platform. All Refiners have submitted their Responsible Sourcing audit documents, assurance reports and supporting data securely into the GBI platform. This means that LBMA’s own Responsible Sourcing and Data Analysis teams have benefitted from enhanced data in support of audit reviews and Country of Origin data analysis. London Custodian engagement is progressing well toward the target of 100% onboarding, and we will see aggregated reporting of vault holdings through the platform by the end of 2026.

LBMA is now focused on building upon the success of 2025 to define the next steps in its GBI evolution roadmap. Our Chief Executive, Ruth Crowell announced that voluntary periodic reporting of Country of Origin data will commence from the end of Q1 2026. Further to this, LBMA is working with aXedras to build the capability to permit Responsible Sourcing Auditors to submit final Assurance Reports independently and directly into the GBI platform. Opportunities have also been identified to enhance the data analytics within the GBI system to drive greater functionality, transparency and efficiency into the processes across the platform. These capabilities will be built, tested and available within the GBI platform from the end of Q1 2026 and in time for the next round of Responsible Sourcing audits.

This year, LBMA has also recruited a new Data team headed by Shakarah Alexis-Wilson which, alongside embedding our Data Strategy for 2026 and beyond, will be playing a key role in driving forward the data integrity developments and enhanced analytics that will underpin the realisation of the LBMA vision.

Beyond 2026, LBMA will examine the feasibility of moving toward capturing bar level production data from Refiners as well as bar level vault holdings from London custodians. LBMA recognises the challenges with these ambitions and extensive engagement with reporting organisations will work through expectations.