What LBMA accreditation means for your gold bar

What the London Bullion Market Association is

The LBMA is the trade association for the London precious metals market. A large share of the world's wholesale gold changes hands in London, mostly between banks, refiners and big traders, and the LBMA sets the standards that market works to.

It is not a government regulator, and it does not sell bars. Its job is to decide which refiners the London market will accept, and to keep checking that they still meet the standard. Its rules cover the metal, how the bars are made and marked, and, in recent years, where the gold comes from in the first place.

So when someone calls a bar LBMA approved, they usually mean it was made by a refiner on the LBMA's accredited list. Nobody in London inspected the bar in your hand. They vetted its maker.

The Good Delivery list, in plain terms

The Good Delivery list is the LBMA's register of refiners whose large bars the London market accepts. A Good Delivery gold bar is a hefty thing: around 400 troy ounces, or about 12.4 kg, the size central banks and bullion banks keep in their vaults. Silver has its own list and its own large bar standard.

To get on the list, a refiner has to show it can turn out bars of the right fineness and weight time after time. It also has to meet the LBMA's requirements on financial standing and responsible sourcing, and its bars are tested before it is accepted. After that, the refiner is monitored on an ongoing basis. One that stops meeting the rules, or stops trading, can end up on the LBMA's former list instead.

You are unlikely to carry a 12 kg bar out of our shop. What matters for you is that the refiners behind those big bars also make the 1 g, 100 g and 1 kg bars sold over the counter. Strictly speaking, Good Delivery accreditation covers the large bars, but a refiner with that standing has every reason to hold its smaller products to the same name.

Why an accredited refiner matters for trust

Gold is hard to judge by eye. Tungsten, for one, is almost as dense as gold, so a plated tungsten bar can weigh about right. A well-known accredited refiner brings a long track record, packaging and bar designs people recognise, and a lot to lose if anything carrying its stamp turns out to be wrong.

Still, accreditation describes the refiner, not the piece you are holding. A good fake can copy a famous logo. That is why we test every piece before it is sold, with a PMV (Precious Metal Verifier) and XRF testing, plus a Veriscan check on PAMP bars. The name on the bar and the test at the counter do different jobs. You want both.

The markings help too. A bar from an accredited refiner carries the refiner's mark, the fineness and the weight, and many bars also have a serial number. If these are missing, blurred or oddly spaced, ask questions before you pay.

What a recognised refiner means when you sell

Selling is where the name on the bar earns its keep. Dealers in Singapore and overseas know how a bar from a major accredited refiner should look, weigh and test. That makes it simple to assess and quick to process.

A bar from a maker nobody recognises is harder going. The gold inside may be perfectly good, but the buyer has more checking to do, and may treat it on its gold content rather than as a branded bullion product.

When you sell to us, we test the piece at the counter and set the final amount there, at that moment's price. Bring the original packaging or assay card if you still have it. It helps, though the test has the final say. Our sell page explains the steps if you want to read them before coming in.

LBMA accreditation and Singapore's GST exemption

Since 1 October 2012, investment precious metals, known as IPM, have been exempt from GST in Singapore. GST is 9% now, so whether a bar counts as IPM makes a noticeable difference to what you pay.

For gold bars and wafers, the conditions include a purity of at least 99.5%. The bar must come from a refiner accredited by a recognised market body, and the LBMA is the main example. It must also carry the refiner's mark, fineness and weight. Silver needs at least 99.9% purity and platinum at least 99%, with similar conditions on refiners and markings.

Coins are treated differently. They must be legal tender in their country of issue and meet IRAS's other conditions, so refiner accreditation is not the test for them. Jewellery never counts as IPM, whatever its karat.

This is only the outline. For the full conditions, read IRAS's e-Tax guide on investment precious metals.

Checking a gold bar before you pay

You do not need a laboratory to ask sensible questions. A few checks at any counter, ours included, will tell you a fair amount.

To confirm a refiner's status, look it up on the LBMA's own website, which publishes the current Good Delivery lists. It takes a minute.

• Find the refiner's name or logo, the fineness (such as 999.9) and the weight stamped on the bar.
• Check the refiner is on the LBMA's current Good Delivery list, not just the former one.
• Ask the dealer how the piece was tested, and whether you can watch.
• Make sure the dealer is registered with the Ministry of Law under the PSPM Act. Ours is No. PS20260001016, shown on our About page and in the footer.
• Keep the packaging, certificate and receipt together somewhere dry. Singapore's humidity is not kind to cardboard.