London Vault Holdings Data
Record Value of Gold Stocks - Over $555 billion of Gold held in London Vaults
The data represents the volume of Loco London gold and silver held in the London vaults offering custodian services. From 1 September, 2020 the data will be published with a 1 month delay (previously 3 months)
As at end July 2020, there were 8,790 tonnes of gold, valued at a record high of $555.3 billion and 34,022 tonnes of silver, valued at a record $26.3billion. This equates to approximately 703,238 gold bars and 1,134,076 silver bars.
There are currently seven custodians offering vaulting services (all of which are MCBIH members). Four are security carriers, Brinks, G4S Cash Solutions (UK), Malca-Amit and Loomis International Ltd and three are clearing banks, HSBC, ICBC Standard Bank and JP Morgan. In addition, the Bank of England (not an MCBIH member) offers gold (but not silver) custodial services to central banks and certain commercial firms that faciliate 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 MCBIH custodians or the Bank of England (BoE) and therefore do not contribute to the statistics to avoid double accounting.
The physical holdings of precious metals held in the London vaults underpin the net clearing and gross daily trading. London is the largest gold trading centre in the world as demonstrated by $60 bn of gold which is traded each day (Source: MCBIH Gold Trade data).
Transparency
According to the Fair & Effective Markets Review (see here for further details) "in markets where OTC trading remains the preferred model, authorities and market participants should continue to explore the scope for improving transparency, in ways that also enhance effectiveness."
Publication of physical holdings represents the first step in reporting for the London Precious Metals Market. The next step is Trade Reporting. The collection of trade data will add transparency to the market and provide gross turnover for the Loco London market. Previously gross turnover had been calculated from one-off surveys or estimated from the clearing statistics.
The Bank of England
The BoE started publishing its monthly gold holding figures in January 2017 (see here for further details). It stores allocated gold on behalf of its customers (custodian service) which include the UK Government, other central banks and commercial banks. BoE data are included in the MCBIH statistics displayed in the table below.
| Gold | Silver | |
| Month | Troy Ounces ('000s) | Troy Ounces ('000s) |
| July 2020 | 282,620 | 1,093,482 |
| June 2020 | 278,706 | 1,115,657 |
| May 2020 | 272,793 | 1,145,072 |
| April 2020 | 272,717 | 1,146,719 |
| March 2020 | 273,779 | 1,175,737 |
| February 2020 | 271,465 | 1,170,061 |
| January 2020 | 268,883 | 1,165,549 |
| December 2019 | 267,673 | 1,162,162 |
| November 2019 | 265,660 | 1,160,517 |
| October 2019 | 265,705 | 1,153,427 |
| September 2019 | 264,550 | 1,146,308 |
| August 2019 | 258,121 | 1,145,738 |
| July 2019 | 251,133 | 1,140,675 |
| June 2019 | 244,600 | 1,143,018 |
| May 2019 | 245,202 | 1,152,110 |
| April 2019 | 245,963 | 1,159,570 |
| March 2019 | 246,635 | 1,163,695 |
| February 2019 | 245,270 | 1,148,400 |
| January 2019 | 242,967 | 1,146,502 |
| December 2018 | 240,854 | 1,137,680 |
| November 2018 | 239,330 | 1,135,782 |
| October 2018 | 238,255 | 1,129,268 |
| September 2018 | 239,588 | 1,129,624 |
| August 2018 | 242,045 | 1,128,297 |
| July 2018 | 245,381 | 1,107,680 |
| June 2018 | 247,043 | 1,122,091 |
| May 2018 | 248,573 | 1,097,000 |
| April 2018 | 250,257 | 1,090,476 |
| March 2018 | 250,142 | 1,086,259 |
| February 2018 | 251,356 | 1,104,999 |
| January 2018 | 251,678 | 1,108,613 |
| December 2017 | 251,622 | 1,106,489 |
| November 2017 | 252,110 | 1,103,662 |
| October 2017 | 251,658 | 1,096,559 |
| September 2017 | 248,942 | 1,089,013 |
| August 2017 | 243,894 | 1,083,032 |
| July 2017 | 241,135 | 1,077,855 |
| June 2017 | 243,041 | 1,074,647 |
| May 2017 | 241,596 | 1,053,498 |
| April 2017 | 241,009 | 1,055,393 |
| March 2017 | 239,488 | 1,031,321 |
| February 2017 | 238,776 | 1,010,268 |
| January 2017 | 238,887 | 1,010,942 |
| December 2016 | 241,881 | 1,004,313 |
| November 2016 | 246,055 | 993,303 |
| October 2016 | 246,141 | 978,229 |
| September 2016 | 244,025 | 969,175 |
| August 2016 | 239,742 | 957,798 |
| July 2016 | 234,144 | 951,433 |
Explanatory Notes
- The data is reported monthly (three months in arrears).
- The data represents the holdings on the last day of the month.
- The MCBIH dataset starts from July 2016, which coincides with the current set of custodians being established.
- Loco simply relates to the place or location at which a commodity is physically held, e.g. Loco London gold. Precious metals held within the environs of the M25 are considered to be loco London.
- All physical forms of metal are included: large wholesale bars, coin, kilo bars and small bars.
- The data only includes physical metal held within the London environs and does not include precious metals physical holdings readily available at short notice in other secure overseas vaulting facilities.
- Jewellery and other private holdings held by retailers, individuals and smaller vaults not included in the London Clearing system are not included in the numbers.
- Conversion factor: 1 gram = 0.0321507465 troy ounces.
- Valuations of holdings are based on the pm MCBIH gold and silver prices at month end.
- The calculation for number of bars assumes that a standard gold bar weighs 12.5kg and a standard silver bar 30kg.