US exchange picked to oversee London gold pricing

Oversight of London's scandal-hit gold price setting process has been awarded to a division of Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the US trading platform, authorities said here on Friday.
Industry body the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) announced in a statement that ICE Benchmark Administration (IBA) had been selected as third party administrator for a new mechanism for setting gold prices after a market-wide consultation.
"IBA, an independent specialist benchmark administrator, will provide the price platform, methodology as well as the overall administration and governance for the LBMA Gold Price," said in the statement.
"IBA’s proposal meets the... criteria as it is electronic, auction-based, tradeable and auditable. The gold price mechanism is also expected to attract an increased number of direct participants."
The LBMA added that it would develop a process of accreditation for gold price participants, and will work closely with IBA before the new gold price mechanism is introduced in the first quarter of 2015.
The industry is seeking to modernise the so-called London Gold Fix, a century-old global benchmark which has been tainted by a rigging scandal and attacked by critics as old-fashioned.
The benchmark gold price is set twice daily by four banks -- Britain's Barclays and HSBC, Canada's Scotiabank and Societe Generale of France.
However, the system lurched into crisis earlier this year when Barclays was fined more than £26 million ($45 million, 33 million euros) by British regulators after a ex-trader at the troubled bank admitted attempting to manipulate the gold price.