London Vault Holdings (LBMA)

About this data

The LBMA London vault holdings series reports the total gold and silver physically held in the London vaults of the LBMA's vault operators and at the Bank of England, in thousands of troy ounces at each month end. London is the settlement hub of the OTC bullion market, so this is the closest thing to a balance sheet for the loco London pool behind unallocated accounts and many of the largest gold ETFs. Traders read it against physical flows: London gold falling while UK exports to Switzerland rise usually means 400-ounce bars are being recast into kilo bars for Asia; London holdings rising alongside ETF creations means metal is being locked into Western investment demand.

Source: London Bullion Market Association (lbma.org.uk), London Vault Holdings Data, one Excel workbook updated monthly with roughly a one-month lag and history from July 2016. WatchGold checks for the new file weekly and re-ingests the full history, so upstream revisions carry through.

Frequently asked questions

What do the LBMA London vault holdings actually include?

Everything physically sitting in the LBMA-approved London vaults plus the Bank of England, regardless of who owns it. That covers central-bank gold in custody at the Bank, allocated metal backing exchange-traded funds, bullion-bank inventory and private holdings. The headline is not free supply: analysts subtract Bank of England custody and ETF holdings to estimate the float that is actually available to the OTC market, which is a far smaller number.

When does the LBMA publish London vault data?

Once a month, as a single spreadsheet on the LBMA website, reporting month-end totals for gold and silver in thousands of troy ounces with a lag of roughly one month. The publication day varies, and previously reported months are occasionally revised when a vault restates its return. The series begins in July 2016; there is no weekly or daily version, so the chart only moves when a new month is released.

How do I read the London vault holdings chart?

Gold plots against the left axis and silver against the right, both in thousands of troy ounces; divide by 32.15 to get tonnes, which the tooltip does for you. Watch the month-on-month change rather than the level: a run of declines in gold alongside heavy UK-to-Switzerland exports marks metal leaving for Asian refining, while silver drawdowns have tracked ETF redemptions and exports to India and the US. The cards above the chart show the latest month-on-month and year-on-year moves.