Gold as a source

of collateral
About the World Gold Council Contents
The World Gold Council is the market development organisation Introduction 01
for the gold industry. Working within the investment, jewellery How gold measures up as collateral 05
and technology sectors, as well as engaging in government affairs,
our purpose is to provide industry leadership, whilst stimulating A case study: ICE Clear Europe 08
and sustaining demand for gold.
We develop gold-backed solutions, services and markets,
based on true market insight. As a result, we create structural
shifts in demand for gold across key market sectors.
We provide insights into the international gold markets,
helping people to better understand the wealth preservation
qualities of gold and its role in meeting the social and
environmental needs of society.
Based in the UK, with operations in India, the Far East, Turkey,
Europe and the USA, the World Gold Council is an association
whose members include the world’s leading and most forward
thinking gold mining companies.

For more information

Please contact Government Affairs:
Ashish Bhatia
ashish.bhatia@gold.org
+1 212 317 3850
Natalie Dempster
Director, Government Affairs
natalie.dempster@gold.org
+44 20 7826 4707

Gold as a source of collateral

Introduction

The 2007-2009 financial crisis highlighted inadequacies

in counterparty risk management in the global over-the-
counter (OTC) market. G20 leaders have committed to
address this by implementing regulatory reforms that will
augment the use of central counterparty (CCP) clearing.
This will in turn increase demand for the collateral assets
that need to be posted with CCPs. 
In order to give clearing members as much flexibility as
possible, CCPs have begun searching for appropriate new
sources of collateral. This has become a particular focus
as the credit quality of many traditional collateral assets,
such as European government bonds, has deteriorated
sharply as a result of the ongoing sovereign debt crisis.
Gold is emerging as a solution. Its lack of credit risk
and countercyclical behaviour make it an ideal source
of collateral for CCPs, while their members benefit from
being able to use their gold holdings more efficiently. 
This report investigates this nascent use for gold and
examines the unique characteristics of gold which make
it an ideal form of collateral. 
In addition, Paul Swann, President of ICE Clear Europe,
one of Europe’s largest derivatives clearing houses, talks
about ICE’s decision to start accepting gold as collateral
in late 2010 and the benefits that gold can bring to a CCP.

01
Major clearing houses start Using gold more efficiently
to accept gold as collateral A desire to help clearing members use their gold more
ICE Clear Europe became the first clearing house in Europe efficiently was the primary motivation behind the change
to accept gold as collateral on all its energy and credit default in collateral rules, according to both ICE and LCH Clearnet.
swap transactions in November 2010. ICE set a collateral limit This is not surprising given the rapid growth witnessed in
of the lower of US$250 million or 30% of the total initial margin gold investment in recent years. This has been fuelled, amongst
requirement and applied a haircut of 12%. This is consistent other factors, by inflation fears and the increasing frequency of
with gold’s long run volatility performance. ICE applies the “fat tail” events in global financial markets, which have increased
same haircut to 10-year French and German government bonds. demand for gold as a store of value and risk management tool.
Longer-dated bonds from both countries have a higher haircut Investment demand for gold has more than doubled in the
than gold. London-based LCH Clearnet, a leading independent past five years alone, from 620 tonnes in 2005 to 1,672.3 tonnes
clearing house group, said that it too plans to start accepting in 2010.
gold as collateral in 2011, subject to regulatory approval.
A common criticism of gold is that it offers no yield – or even
Across the Atlantic, US-based CME Group, the world’s largest a negative yield if the investor needs to pay vaulting fees. This is,
derivatives exchange, also accepts gold as part of its standard in fact, not true for all gold holders, as those with access to the
acceptable collateral on all derivative trades. CME member firms interbank (bullion) market can often lease the unallocated gold
can provide a maximum of US$200 million of their collateral positions for a small positive return. Still, for many private
in gold. CME Clearing applies a 15% haircut to gold, higher than investors and fund managers this option may not be available.
the haircut on the selected foreign government bonds it accepts
(those of Canada, France, Germany, Sweden and the UK), The ability to use gold as collateral for other trading transactions
yet lower than some foreign currencies, and half the 30% haircut helps to create an “implicit yield” on existing gold holdings.
applied to selected S&P500 stocks. Take, for example, a fund manager with an existing long-term
gold position of US$100 million. The fund manager now wants
JP Morgan & Co. also recently announced that it will accept to engage in new trading activities on ICE and his initial collateral
physical gold as collateral against securities lending and requirement is, say $100 million. If the fund manager raises the
repurchase obligations. cash at the market rate of 100 basis points (Libor + credit spread),
it will cost him $1 million annually to fund this position.

Chart 1: ICE Clear Europe – haircuts applied to selected collateral assets

%
16

14

12

10

0
CAD 2021 OATs 2020 Bunds 2020 UST 2021 Gold OATs 2022 Bunds 2024

Note: CAD – Canadian government bonds. OATs – French government bonds. Bunds – German government bonds. UST – US bonds.

Source: ICE Clear Europe

Gold as a source of collateral

Chart 2: CME Group – haircuts applied to selected collateral assets

%
35

30

25

20

15

10

0
Foreign Mexican peso Turkish lira Gold Foreign debt Foreign debt Foreign debt Selected S&P500
sovereign cash (5-10 years) (>30 years) (10-30 years) stocks

Note: Foreign sovereign cash – Australian dollar, British pound, Canadian dollar, Euro, Japanese yen, New Zealand dollar, Norwegian krone,
Swedish krone, Swiss franc. Foreign debt – Canada, France, Germany, Sweden and United Kingdom.

Source: CME Group Inc

Chart 3: Total investment in gold

Tonnes
2,000

1,500

1,000

500

-500
2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
Physical bar demand Official coin Medals/imitation coin
ETFs and similar products OTC investment and stock flows

Note: World Gold Council presentation.

Source: GFMS

02 _03
Now, as gold has become acknowledged as a collateral type, What makes effective collateral?
the fund manager can use gold to meet part of his collateral
requirement. In this situation, the fund places the US$100 million Central Counterparties Clearinghouses (CCPs) are subject
gold position as collateral, which after a 12 percent haircut to credit and market risk. Credit risk stems from the CCPs
funds all but US$12 million of the gold position. The remaining role as counterparty to both the buyer and seller. The market
US$12 million is funded at the same market rate as the risk stems from the CCP’s exposure to the market related
prior example of 100 basis points for a cost of US$120,000. fluctuations in assets that are serving as collateral against
This represents an actual cash savings of US$880,000 an the buyer and seller’s financial exposure.
implied yield of 0.88 percent on the US$100 million gold position. Collateral assets should have minimal credit and market risk.
The implied yield can be written as: They should be easy to value on a continuous basis, allowing
Implied yield = (1-Gh)*R CCPs to calculate realistic haircuts. The assets should be
easy to trade, ideally supported by committed market markers
Where: continuously quoting a two-way price. The market should also
Gh – Gold’s haircut be sufficiently deep and liquid – ideally with a diverse demand
R – Cash borrowing rate base – that the asset can be readily sold if needed without
(Note that for simplicity we assume unchanged vaulting costs resulting in a larger “haircut” than factored into the CCPs
and no limit on gold being applied for initial margin.) risk calculations.

And with most yield curves signalling sharply higher interest

rates in the near future, the savings from using an existing gold
position instead of cash as collateral should increase sharply in
the coming years. Using gold can also help to expand a company’s
balance sheet if gold has a lower haircut than the other assets
currently being used as collateral.

Chart 4: US yield curve – US Treasury actives

%
5.0

4.5

4.0

3.5

3.0

2.5

2.0

1.5

1.0

0.5

0
3-month 6-month 1-year 2-year 3-year 5-year 7-year 10-year 30-year

Source: Bloomberg as at 6 April 2011

Gold as a source of collateral

How gold measures
up as collateral
When considering collateral, cash and government bonds may
be the first assets that spring to mind, but gold is in many
ways the ideal form of collateral for both investors and CCPs.

No credit risk Transparent pricing

There is no credit risk associated with gold after it has been The daily price of gold is arguably one of the most widely-known
settled. By contrast, credit risks on other collateral assets have prices in the world. It is difficult to think of any other asset
grown discernibly recently. The last several years have proved whose price is just as readily known by low-income households
that no assets can be considered “risk free.” The European in rural emerging market economies, as in the global technology,
sovereign debt crisis showed that even the credit quality public and financial sectors.
of government bond markets can deteriorate rapidly as rating
The gold market trades on a continuous 24 hours a day basis
agencies continue to downgrade many European bonds.
around the world. The price of gold is “fixed” twice daily
Western government bonds have become much riskier
in London (the AM and PM fix), ensuring that there is an
in recent years, as public finances have deteriorated sharply.
international benchmark, published price. The London PM fix
Declining credit ratings mean some government bonds
is widely used as a pricing medium by producers, consumers,
are no longer acceptable forms of collateral and/or have
investors and central banks.
much higher haircuts than in the past. Even cash cannot be
considered to be truly “risk free”, against a backdrop of such There are numerous ways to trade gold. Most gold trading takes
aggressive quantitative easing, which could see a steep rise place in the global OTC market, which has committed market
in future inflation. makers that must quote each other a two way price in gold
continuously throughout the day. Gold is also traded on various
commodity exchanges, stock exchanges and electronic trading
platforms around the world. In Asia, retail shops are also an
important source of demand and supply for gold investment bars.

Chart 5: Daily trading volumes as a percentage of total outstanding issuance in 2010

%
3.5

3.0

2.5

2.0

1.5

1.0

0.5

0
Gold* Bunds Gilts

*Based on LBMA clearing volumes, multipied by a factor of three, to reflect trader’s minumum estimates of actual daily trading volumes and GFMS estimates
of total gold held in private investment and in the official sector.

Source: LBMA, GFMS, World Gold Council, Bund fact sheet, Federal Republic of Germany finance agency, UK DMO

04 _05
Deep and liquid market Greater diversity than pure financial assets
The gold market is deep and liquid. GFMS precious metals Where the gold market differs substantially from bond markets
consultancy estimates that, at the end of 2010, total above and other financial instruments is in its diversity. Unlike financial
ground stocks of gold were 166,600 tonnes. Converting at assets, the gold market is not solely dependent on investment
the average 2010 gold price of $1,225.42 gives an estimated as a source of demand. Over the past five years, 58% of demand
value of above ground gold stocks of US$6.5 trillion. Around came from the jewellery sector, 30% from investment and
US$2.4 trillion is thought to be held by private individuals, 12%from technology. Gold has a diverse range of buyers, ranging
in the form of coins and bars, and by official institutions. By way from Indian jewellery manufacturers, to electronics producers
of comparison, this would make the gold market larger than in Asia, to worldwide dentistry and medicine, to pension and
each of the Eurobond markets. endowment funds and central banks.
We estimate that gold OTC trading settled through London
alone is in the region of US$67-220 billion per day.1 This would Gold can bring additional benefits to CCPs
make the gold market more liquid, on this basis, than either
Having a proportion of collateral in gold can bring additional
the UK Gilt or German bund market. The International Monetary
benefits to CCPs in times of acute financial market strains.
Fund’s ability to sell 181 tonnes of gold in the OTC market
The 2007-2009 financial crisis demonstrated that even the
between February 2010 and December 2010 with no market
liquidity of assets thought to be supremely liquid, such as
disruption is also a testament to the depth of the gold market.
Western government agency bonds and money market funds,
Similarly, the large purchases that have recently been made
can dry up. Gold, on the other hand, is a counter cyclical
by central banks.
asset often enjoying flight-to-quality inflows during times
Increasing interest in the need to manage counterparty risk by of market duress.
those hedging gold exposures led LCH Clearnet to launch its
Between the beginning of the financial crisis in the summer of
OTC gold clearing service in December 2010, a joint initiative
2007 and May 2011, the gold price has rallied from US$650/oz
with the London Metal Exchange (LME). The benefits of clearing
to US$1450/oz. Inter alia, this reflects gold’s lack of credit
are provided without impacting the way in which counterparties
risk, diverse consumer base and store of value tendencies.
negotiate and execute their contracts.
Gold often benefits from the policies put in place to remedy
financial crisis, such as expansionary fiscal policies or
quantitative easing, both of which can be inflationary hence
undermining fiat currencies. Thus, in the event of a financial
crisis, when CCPs face the highest credit and market risks,
there is a good chance that gold will be performing at its best.

1 Based on LBMA clearing volumes, however, as many trades are netted out, this is multiplied by a factor of 3 and 10, to reflect traders’ minimum and
maximum estimates of actual dealing turnover.

Gold as a source of collateral

Chart 6: Outstanding issuance – selected government debt markets and gold

US$ bn
2,500

2,000

1,500

1,000

500

0
nd

ay

ng

lia

en

ria

ds

um

ce

da

ain

ce

ly

ld
ga
ar

an
lan

lan

or

lan

Ita

Go
ra

do
rw

st

lan

ee

na

an
ala

Ko

ed

rtu

Sp
nm
ap

lgi

rm
st
er

Fin

Ire

Au

ng
Ca

Fr
No

Gr
Sw
Ze

er

Be
Po
ng

Au
ng

itz

De

Ge
Ki
th
Si
Sw
Ho
w

Ne

d
Ne

ite
Un
Note: Bond data are based on mid-year outstanding issuance figures as reported in the BIS quarterly review.
Gold is combined private investment and official sector gold holdings converted at the 2010 average gold price.

Source: BIS, GFMS, World Gold Council

Chart 7: Gold price (US$/oz) London PM fix

US$/oz
1,600

1,400

1,200

1,000

800

600

400

200

0
2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011

Source: Bloomberg

06_07
A case study:
ICE Clear Europe
Paul Swann, President and Chief Operating Officer
ICE Clear Europe talks about the clearing house’s decision
to accept gold as collateral.

ICE Clear Europe clears energy futures and energy OTC products, How is the gold transferred from the clearing member to ICE?
as well as European credit default swaps (CDS). In 2010, ICE Swann: “ We receive our gold electronically. We hold it in
Clear Europe cleared 435 million futures and options on futures a custodian bank and take transfers of one troy ounce of gold
transactions and 622 million OTC transactions. ICE Clear Europe at a time. We initially take them in as unallocated deposits in our
also cleared 366 thousand CDS with a gross notional value of depository and then move them into allocated deposits when
€3.5 trillion, resulting in year-end open interest of €475 billion. we’ve got complete bars.”
Based in London, ICE Clear Europe is a UK Recognised Clearing
Were there any regulatory hurdles?
House and is regulated by the FSA. ICE Clear Europe has received
Swann: “There’s a whole regulatory debate going on around
US DCO registration from the CFTC.
what central counterparties should and shouldn’t accept as
How does ICE make decisions on eligible collateral? collateral with the primary driver being security. So regulators
Swann: “When ICE is examining which asset it should accept as want central counterparties to hold collateral which is easily
collateral, it has three primary considerations. First, are liquidity liquidifiable and will hold its value in times of stress. So that’s
and the ability to realise value, particularly in times of stress. sort of the macro picture. We weren’t really driven by regulators
Second, is member demand and there being a need to take that to improve our services, we’ve always been leading-edge in
collateral and clearing members wanting to put that collateral terms of wanting to provide the broadest range of services to
with us. The third is that the valuation will hold up effectively our customers and we have seen gold as being a good asset
in times of stress. class for some time. So we wanted to put that service out there
and make it available early so that as demand for collateral
One of the reasons we particularly like gold is because it is
increases our customers have greater flexibility in what they can
counter cyclical. Typically, in times of stress, demand for gold is
use with us. We clearly had to explain to our regulator why we
high. If you look over the long-term history, gold performs very
believed gold to be a good asset class and why we should add
well in the periods when clearing houses are most concerned:
it to the collateral that we otherwise provide. It was a leading-edge
and that is during periods of stress. The fact that gold demand
proposition. There is no other clearing house across Europe
might fall off in times of less stress does not worry us because
that accepts gold as margin collateral, so we certainly had to go
of the way that we value collateral on a daily basis.”
through a process with our regulator of explaining to them what
What motivated you to start accepting gold as collateral? we were proposing to do and how we were going to go about
Swann: “Around the 2007 financial crisis, the G20 said that valuing the gold and discounting the gold. But beyond that our
they wanted to try to de-risk financial markets by putting more regulator was very supportive of what we were doing.”
products into clearing houses. That will increase the demand
Do you think we are likely to see more CCPs accepting
for collateral to securitise the risks in clearing houses. In order
gold as collateral?
to give our members greater flexibility, we wanted to provide
Swann: “I think there are a couple of factors that will determine
as many asset classes as we could in terms of what they could
whether or not that is the case. One is that there is this regulatory
lodge and pledge with us to meet their margin liabilities.
debate going on around what eligible collateral clearing houses
The move to accept gold as collateral has been demand led.”
should be allowed to accept and clearly if that doesn’t include
What haircut did you apply to gold and why? physical assets such as gold then clearing houses won’t accept
Swann: “Let me start by explaining what a haircut is: it’s a discount it. My own clearing house would have to revise its policy in
to a product’s market value to allow for the fact that we only value relation to accepting gold, although that’s not the outcome
collateral on a daily basis. Therefore, between the point when we that we would hope for. Rather, we would hope that when we
last revalue an asset and the point at which we might need to go through this regulatory debate, assets such as gold will be
liquidate it, the value may change. Obviously if there is a decrease included and we will see further adoptance of gold as an asset
in value we need to protect ourselves against that decline. class going forward.”
The haircut is determined using something called a Value-at-Risk What general trends can we expect to see in CCPs over
(VAR) model, which looks at the long-term structural value the next few years?
change in gold on a one-day basis. By doing that modelling Swann: “The G20 met during the crisis and determined that in
we came up with a discount for gold of 12 percent. The range order to reduce systemic risk in financial markets, more products
of discounts we provide on collateral is between 3 percent on should be cleared, particularly OTC derivatives. As a consequence,
some of the short-dated government bonds through to about we are going to see a lot more products which historically were
20 percent for some of the long-dated bonds. There are some traded bilaterally in the OTC markets brought in to the clearing
outliers, but as a general rule that’s the range that we would environment. Therefore I think we will see a significant growth
apply in haircuts. Interestingly, the gold haircut that we determine in new products that are cleared by clearing houses, such as ICE
through our VAR model is the long-term volatility of gold.” Clear Europe, but also we’re seeing significant growth in existing
products, as products which are similar to cleared products are
ceasing to be traded as bilateral contracts.”

Gold as a source of collateral

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Published: May
April2011
2011