Citi strengthens presence in London bullion market

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Citi enters gold clearing market

Highlights

Citi joined LPMCL as a precious-metals clearing member.
The role covers gold, silver, platinum, and palladium settlement.
London vaults held $1.4 trillion of gold at end-May 2026.

Citi enters London clearing network

Citi has been admitted as a clearing member of London Precious Metals Clearing Limited, or LPMCL, the infrastructure group at the center of the Loco London market. The role allows the bank to help settle over-the-counter precious metals trades and provide clients with clearing services for major metals, Bloomberg reported.

The addition places Citigroup alongside JPMorgan Chase, HSBC, UBS, and ICBC Standard Bank in a small group of institutions that support daily settlement in London. The Bank of England also stores gold, mainly for central banks.

London’s bullion market depends on clearing banks because many trades are settled by transferring ownership claims to metal held in vaults, rather than moving bars each time. LPMCL says the Loco London market is the global standard for gold, silver, platinum, and palladium dealing and settlement, with precious metals physically held and settled in London.

Vault access matters

The clearing role also gives banks access to physical bullion infrastructure. Members operate or use vaults that allow metal to change hands efficiently and can support arbitrage trades when price differences open between London, New York, and Asian markets.

Citi is partnering with secure logistics firm Malca-Amit to use a vault near London’s Heathrow Airport.

Citi’s entry is notable because the London clearing group has become more concentrated over time. Deutsche Bank, Bank of Nova Scotia, and Barclays have all left the business over the past few decades. ICBC Standard Bank was the last institution admitted as a clearing bank, after buying Barclays’s 2,000-ton capacity vault in 2016.

A deeper role in bullion infrastructure

The move comes as London’s bullion infrastructure remains central to global precious metals trading. LBMA data show London vaults held 9,392 tonnes of gold at the end of May 2026, valued at $1.4 trillion, along with 27,611 tonnes of silver worth $67.3 billion.

For Citi, clearing membership expands a long-running precious metals business into the operational core of the market. For London, the arrival of another major bank adds capacity and competition in a system that handles large physical and paper flows for global investors, refiners, central banks, and industrial users. It also shows that physical market infrastructure remains valuable at a time when gold holdings, prices, and investor interest have stayed elevated.

We have previously highlighted that Citigroup moves private-company shares onto blockchain.

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