Singapore eyes gold hub
Singapore unveiled plans to create an Asia gold trading hub, aiming to deepen derivatives and algo trading infrastructure for commodities in the region. The move could reshape regional liquidity pools and algo opportunities for commodities-focused quant strategies. (x.com)
A Gold Market Development Working Group, co‑chaired by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the Singapore Bullion Market Association (SBMA), was established in January 2026 to design the hub’s road map. (businesstimes.com.sg) MAS and SBMA flagged four concrete focus areas for the initiative: developing gold‑related capital‑market products, setting internationally aligned vaulting and logistics standards, building a clearing system for OTC settlement of large‑bar and kilobar trades, and offering vaulting services to foreign central banks and sovereign entities. (businesstimes.com.sg) MAS Deputy Chairman Chee Hong Tat told reporters the working group’s industry consultations showed explicit demand from foreign central banks for local storage, and clarified the market scope by noting London’s 12.4kg “large bar” standard and Asia’s 1kg kilobar standard. (channelnewsasia.com) Bloomberg reports the working group includes global and local banks — JPMorgan, UBS, DBS, UOB and ICBC Standard — as industry partners, and MAS has discussed expanding vault capacity to act as a custodian for central‑bank bullion. (bloomberg.com) Singapore’s first home‑grown physically backed gold ETF, the LionGlobal Singapore Physical Gold ETF, was scheduled to list on the Singapore Exchange on March 26, 2026 and will trade in both SGD and USD under tickers GLS and GLU with bullion vaulted in Singapore. (straitstimes.com) Bloomberg noted global central banks hold roughly 39,000 tonnes of gold and said attracting even a small share of those reserves — plus bank market‑makers — is central to Singapore’s plan to grow regional liquidity and custody flows. (bloomberg.com)
