By Alex MacDonald
LONDON--U.K.-based clearinghouse LCH.Clearnet Group Ltd. said
Tuesday it will accept a certain specification of gold bullion
called loco London gold as collateral for margin-cover requirements
on over-the-counter precious-metals forward contracts and on Hong
Kong Mercantile Exchange precious-metals contracts starting Aug.
28.
LCH.Clearnet Group Ltd. has already been using gold as
collateral since 2011 but now will accept loco London gold as
collateral. Loco London gold is equivalent to a 400-ounce bar, or
12.5 kilograms of gold, that is stored in London.
The push to use gold as collateral follows similar steps from a
growing number of exchanges and banks to increase the use of gold
as an acceptable deposit, reinforcing the precious metal's allure
as an alternative currency.
CME Clearing Europe, the London-based clearinghouse of CME Group
Inc. (CME), announced last Friday that it planned to accept gold
bullion as collateral for margin requirements on over-the-counter
commodities derivatives. IntercontinentalExchange Inc. (ICE) also
uses gold as collateral.
LCH.Clearnet Group Ltd. said it would limit the amount of loco
London gold that could be used as collateral to 40% of the total
margin-cover requirement for a member across all products and a
maximum of $200 million, or roughly 130,000 troy ounces, per member
group.
LCH.Clearnet also said it would apply a haircut of 14% to the
use of gold as collateral. The haircut is in keeping with similar
actions taken by CME Clearing Europe.
Clearinghouses apply haircuts across a wide range of asset
classes to reduce pricing risk should the collateral asset, whether
gold or government securities, depreciate in value.
Clearinghouses sit in the middle of a transaction, assuming the
counterparty risk involved when two parties trade. Initial and
variation margins are collected from members to fulfill their
obligations should any problems arise.
--Francesca Freeman contributed to this article.
Write to Alex MacDonald at alex.macdonald@dowjones.com