FAQs

From 2015, the Good Delivery annual maintenance fees are as follows:

• Gold or Silver (1 metal) - £8,200
• Gold and Silver (2 metals) - £12,300

During the past decade there is been a significant increase in Good Delivery associated initiatives including: Pro-active Monitoring, Proficiency Testing, Certified Reference Materials and Regulatory work associated with REACH and Responsible Gold. The substantial increase in fees will enable the MCBIH to continue to provide the necessary level of support to the GDL Refiners operating in the London Market into the future.

Going forward, fees will be reviewed annually.

The weight of bars must fall within the range specified in the Good Delivery Rules. Bars such as kilobars, 100-ounce and smaller bars are not acceptable in the London wholesale market, (though they may be in other markets or exchanges). For further details on kilobars produced by GDL refiners visit www.goldbarsworldwide.com.

The company should have been in business for five years and the refinery should have an operating history of three years.

Yes, It should be at least the equivalent of £15 million.

This varies depending on how quickly the company is able to provide any additional information that may have been missing from its initial application and how long it takes to provide the sample bars following successful completion of the assay test.

Delays may also be encountered in the shipping of samples and the payment of fees, which will lengthen the overall application procedure. The minimum timescale from the submission of a complete application to accreditation is approximately four months but an average of approximately 6 months is more likely.

The Former Lists include:

1. Refiners who no longer produce bars at the locations listed;
2. Refiners whose bars are no longer accepted as Good Delivery by the London Bullion market;
3. Bars whose brand mark has been changed (in which case the current brand mark is described in the Current Gold or Silver List).
4. Assayer-only companies which were previously granted Good Delivery status. Refiners are now expected to have the ability to assay as well as refine to the required standard.

However, bars produced by these refiners prior to their transfer to this list on the date given below continue to be acceptable as Good Delivery. The MCBIH reserves the right to de-list bars after an appropriate period of time in cases where production has ceased.

There are a number of separate cases, which can relate either to a particular bar (as determined by its dimensions and/or marks) or to a particular refinery. A refinery may be transferred to the Former List if:

1. Its ownership has changed and the new owners are unable to provide satisfactory evidence of their bona fides
2. It requests to be removed (for instance because it does not wish to pay the annual maintenance fee)
3. It ceases production
4. Its tangible net worth falls consistently below the MCBIH minimum of £15 million
5. Its production of refined metal falls consistently below the minima specified by the MCBIH (10 tonnes pa for gold and 50 tonnes pa for silver)
6. It fails to maintain the technical standards shown in the MCBIH's Good Delivery Rules
7. It does not respond adequately to justifiable customer complaints
8. A previously registered bar (as defined by its dimensions and marks) may be transferred to the Former List for one or more of the reasons listed below, while the refiner continues to be listed but with a modified bar:
   • a. The form or dimensions of the bar do not meet current requirements
   • b. The marks on the bars have been modified. For instance, a company may change from a portrait to a landscape format. Other reasons for such changes include rebranding by the company (e.g. using a new logo) or a change of ownership (i.e. a new name).

Yes

The MCBIH would investigate the complaint, if necessary including an examination the bars and if the complaint appeared justified it would write to the refiner asking it to "stand behind" its bars by making appropriate restitution to the customer.

The main reason for having a tolerance on the weight of Good Delivery bars is because in the overwhelming number of cases they are produced by being cast into open moulds.

This involves the caster pouring the molten metal from a ladle and judging essentially by eye when the mould is full.

The MCBIH has never tried to enforce a totally uniform approach to the dimensions of Good Delivery bars. As long as the bars are within the range specified in the Good Delivery Rules, they are considered to be acceptable in principle. The idea behind the recommended range is the facilitation of manual handling (not just in the London vaults but also in the markets where bars are consumed) while at the same time minimising the number of operations involved in the refinery, the vault and at the point of consumption.

There are three ranges that could be mentioned:

(a) 500 to 1250 troy ounces

(b) 750 to 1100 troy ounces

(c) 900 to 1050 troy ounces

Range (a) was in force until 1999. It was then replaced by a range (b), the current range, because the lower limit of 500 would mean that many bars would have to be produced and processed for a given tonnage while the upper limit of 1250 gave bars which were dangerously heavy for manual handling. Although it is not mandatory, refiners are asked to produce bars within range (c) essentially because this facilitates the assembly of uniform pallets.

The common approach adopted by MCBIH Good Delivery refiners in Russia and Uzbekistan is to use a 4-digit bar number plus a 2-Cyrillic letter code (which changes with each resetting of the bar number to 0001) and a separate 4-digit year code. The combination of the company's brand mark, the two Cyrillic letter code and the 4-digit bar number provides a unique identifier for every bar.

Some London vaults have used the nearest Roman equivalent to the two Cyrillic characters as part of the bar number. These provide a unique identifier and such bar numbers will continue to be used as bars move within the London vaulting system.

Other vaults have ignored the Cyrillic letters when recording the bars in their information systems. This can result in the same 4-digit bar numbers appearing more than once in bar lists (though each of them has a different Cyrillic code).

In order to avoid this apparent duplication, MCBIH vaults will, from February 2010, record such bars with an 8-10 digit bar number formed from the 4-digit year concatenated with the 4-digit bar number and the vault manager may also additionally include a maximum of two alpha characters being the Roman equivalent of the Cyrillic characters shown on the bar.

Occasionally older bars with Cyrillic letter codes but no year marks arrive in London. In such cases, the receiving vault should use the nearest Roman equivalent to the Cyrillic characters as the first characters of the bar number.

Since January 2018, gold and silver bars can be marked with up to five significant figures, however, it must have a point or comma delimiter to avoid confusion and potential ambiguous additions. The weight list would only include four significant figures.

• Brink’s
• IBI International Logistics (UK) Ltd (Formerly known as G4Si)
• Helveticor AG (MCBIH Member, effective Aug 2020)
  
• Loomis International
• Malca Amit

These are the net volume of loco London gold and silver transfers settled between clearing members of the MCBIH.

Loco London transfers from one party in a clearing member's books to another party in the same clearing member's books or in the books of another clearing member. They also include physical transfers and shipments by clearing members and transfers over clearing members' accounts at the Bank of England. Excluded from the statistics are allocated and unallocated balance transfers where the sole purpose is for overnight credit and physical movements arranged by clearers in locations other than London.

They are compiled monthly and represent the average amount of metal transferred on average each day measured in millions of troy ounces.

The MCBIH also publish the average value of transfers measured in US $, using the monthly average London pm fixing price for gold and the average London fixing price for silver. The value of gold transfers are measured in billions of US dollars and the value of silver in millions of US dollars. The MCBIH also publish the average number of gold and silver transfers recorded each day.

There are five members of the MCBIH who offer clearing services, who collectively have formed a company called the London Precious Metals Clearing Limited (LPMCL). They are The Bank of Nova Scotia-ScotiaMocatta, HSBC, ICBC Standard Bank, JP Morgan Chase and UBS AG.

The MCBIH does not accredit institutions to provide vaulting services to the London bullion market. Instead the London Precious Metal Clearing Limited (LPMCL) provides formal recognition of companies to provide vaulting services.

Below is a list of vaulting companies which are acceptable to individual LPMCL Members. This summary is not intended to imply that LPMCL has approved such vaults. Vaults must have MCBIH Approved Weigher status:

• Bank of England
• Brink’s
• G4S
• HSBC
• ICBC Standard
• JP Morgan
• Loomis International
• Malca Amit

Yes.

Yes, Auditors are required to pay £2,000 per annum to be listed as an Approved Service Provider. 

Please refer to Auditor Skills and Competencies - Table 6; Third Party Audit Guidance.

Any Refiner applying to be an MCBIH Good Delivery accredited Gold or Silver Refiner is required to implement the MCBIH Responsible Gold or Silver Guidance and pass an audit prior to becoming a member of the Good Delivery List. All GDL Applicants must use an auditor on the MCBIH's Approved Service Provider List. Please click here to see the current list in the MCBIH Toolkit.

Once you have submitted your application form, it can take approximately eight weeks to receive a response. This is because the MCBIH Physical Committee makes the final decision and they have to review your application at their monthly meetings. We will email the main contact who submitted the application to let them know outcome. If you are successful, the title of your auditing body and main contact's details will be added to our Approved Service Provider list.

The Physical Committee will review the Approved Service Provider list on an annual basis. The MCBIH Executive will ask the listed auditing bodies if anything has changed within their organisation or operations since their original application. If nothing has changed, no action is required. Supporting evidence in the form of documentation will be required if substantial changes have been made. The Physical Committee will then decide if the auditing body can remain on the list.

Refiner's Summary Report - Appendix 8; Third Party Audit Guidance.

Refiner's Compliance Report - Appendix 5; Third Party Audit Guidance.

Auditor's Independent Reasonable Assurance Report (to the Refiner) - Appendix 6; Third Party Audit Guidance.

Auditor's Independent Limited Assurance Report (to the Refiner) - Appendix 7; Third Party Audit Guidance.

A refiner has to wait five years before submitting their application.

The MCBIH Toolkit is intended for use as a guide to how refiners may implement the Responsible Gold or Silver Guidance. Refiners may adopt their own documentation and checklists as part of their controls and procedures.

No. It is up to refiners to establish their own risk assessments and investigations according to their activities.

If a refiner’s certification appears to be expired but they remain on the Gold Current List, the refiner’s audit is in progress. They remain Good Delivery.

Once your audit report has been received, it can take up to three weeks before the Compliance Review Panel provides an official response. A member of the Panel may get in touch during that time with any follow up questions. It can take an additional ten days before you receive your certificate. This process will take longer if your audit requires a Corrective Action Plan to be submitted.

Deadline extensions may be granted under exceptional circumstances. You are advised to get in touch with MCBIH as quickly as possible in advance of the deadline.

From 2017, Good Delivery List refiners will be required to perform audits against the Responsible Gold or Silver Guidance. Supporting documentation from audits under other industry schemes may be submitted as part of the refiner’s audit deliverables.