Citigroup has been approved as the fifth clearing bank for the London Precious Metals Clearing Ltd, breaking a decade‑long lock held by JPMorgan, UBS, ICBC and HSBC. The move adds a new participant to a market that clears roughly $207bn of physical gold and silver each day and oversees vault holdings of $1.4tn in gold as of May.

The LPMCL, owned by its clearing members, has faced criticism for opaque membership rules that were only formalised in 2018. An independent chair, James Cressy, was appointed last year to address those concerns, and his statement framed Citigroup’s entry as proof of a more open process.

The decision arrives amid extreme price swings: gold and silver hit record highs in late January before falling sharply over the past six months. The 2023‑2025 rally spurred banks to expand precious‑metals desks and open new vaults, yet access to clearing remained a bottleneck. José Cogolludo, Citigroup’s head of commodities, called the membership a natural extension of the firm’s long‑standing business, while former LBMA chair Paul Fisher noted that additional clearers inject needed liquidity. The fifth clearer should tighten bid‑ask spreads and give smaller brokers a direct route to settlement, reducing reliance on the incumbent quartet.