Page 7 - Bullion world volume 4 issue 6 june 2024

Bullion World | Volume 4 | Issue 6 | June 2024

This move is expected to enhance transparency and
efficiency in bullion trading.
EDITORIAL According to the World Gold Council (WGC), central
banks globally increased their demand for gold by
1% in the January to March 2024 quarter, reaching
290 tonnes compared to 286.2 tonnes in the same
Dear Readers,
period last year. This marked the strongest start
to any year on record. In the March 2024 quarter,
The Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) central banks bought 69% more gold than the five-
aspect is slowly and certainly becoming an integral year average, which was 171 tonnes. The buying
part of every industry, including ours. In this edition, was widespread, with continued buying from China,
we have Valcambi and Rand Refinery sharing in detail Turkey, and India. Why did RBI, one of the most
some of their ESG initiatives and their outcome. The conservative central banks of the world, choose to
organised part of the precious metals industry from buy so much gold when it was trading at or near all-
mines to refineries has been successful in reducing time high? Do they know something that we don't?
energy and water consumption and decreasing Time will reveal.
carbon footprint. They have also reached out to the
neighbourhood and participated in several societal In this special edition of Bullion World, we feature
welfare programmes. Lastly these companies have a series of insightful articles on various key topics.
set very high standards in compliance beyond the Mr Simone Knobloch from Valcambi SA discusses
statutory requirements. Still, a lot needs to be done, the importance of ESG initiatives, followed by
especially in the downstream value chain (from Mr Shaokai Fan, who explains the World Gold
bullion to jewellery to retail including recycling). Council's strategies in the ASEAN region. Mr Praveen
Technology is certainly going to enable this. It also Baijnath shares Rand Refinery’s ESG efforts, while
calls for a much more collaborative approach and Mr Ramakrishnan Padmanabhan from IFSCA talks
focus on research to arrive at optimal solutions.
about potential collaborations with the ASEAN
market. Mr Ashok Gautam provides an article on
The India International Bullion Exchange (IIBX), IIBX. Additionally, Ms Rhona O’Connell from StoneX
commenced operations on July 29, 2022 with an Financial Ltd offers insights on the PGM sector, and
aim to make India a major regional hub for bullion Mr Mahendran from Karur Vysya Bank discusses the
trading. IIBX prioritizes efficient price discovery, role of nominated banks. Mr Spencer Campbell from
standardization, and quality assurance. It is the first SE Asia Consulting Pte Ltd Singapore shares his views
global bullion exchange to offer bullion depository on the Vietnam market. The edition concludes with
receipt (BDR) settlements every 30 minutes. IIBX contributions from Eventell Global Private Advisory
made a notable impact in the 2023-24 fiscal year, Ltd and Bullion World, followed by insights into the
recording 908 metric tonnes of silver trade. The ASEAN gold market.
Reserve Bank of India has recently permitted the
International Banking Units (IBUs) of Indian banks to Best wishes,
act as trading and clearing members (TCM) at IIBX. G Srivatsava
SBI is the first bank to join as TCM.
Editor

We would be happy to receive your comments and feedback on the content of this edition,
please write to editor@bullionworld.in

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