UPDATE 1-LBMA asks for bids to provide gold trading, clearing services

(Updates with comments, background)
By Clara Denina
LONDON, Oct 9 (Reuters) - The London Bullion Market
Association (LBMA) said on Friday it has formally asked
exchanges and technology firms to bid for services such as a
gold exchange or a clearing platform to make the London market
more transparent and liquid.
"This is to investigate opportunities for greater market
transparency through, for example, trade reporting and also
increased trading efficiency via enhanced IT solutions," the
LBMA said in a release.
Following 2014's shake-up of precious metals benchmarks, the
LBMA commissioned consultancy EY to review the bullion market
with a view to enhancing transparency and liquidity, while
reducing costs.
"The review came up with a number of potential solutions,"
an LBMA spokesman said.
"We don't know what specific services each provider could
offer, (but) we need to make sure the chosen solution is
workable for the whole market," the spokesman said, adding that
the companies invited to bid would be the same as for the
benchmarks in 2014.
The group that the LBMA has set up to decide on the winning
bid is made up of market makers including HSBC HSBA.L and JP
Morgan JPM.N and other banks involved in the bullion market as
well as other firms.
London's bullion benchmarks, or fixes, were overhauled last
year as regulatory scrutiny made price-setting among a handful
of banks untenable.
Some 13 companies had participated in the bidding process to
run the gold benchmark, which was won by U.S. derivatives bourse
Intercontinental Exchange ICE.N via a subsidiary. ICE declined
to comment on its intentions in the bidding process.
The London Metal Exchange secured the administration of the
platinum XPT= and palladium XPD= benchmarks and said it was
looking at launching precious metals derivatives.
ID:nL5N11G2ZG
The LME declined to comment.
The Chicago Mercantile Exchange CME.O , jointly with
Thomson Reuters TRI.TO , runs the daily silver price auction
XAGLDN= . Thomson Reuters declined to comment and no one at the
CME was immediately available.
Technology provider Autilla, which also bid for the
benchmarks last year, said it is interested in submitting a
proposal.
"If anybody is looking for solutions to provide more
liquidity to the market, a specialised tailor-made electronic
platform to trade bullion would be successful," said Autilla
chief executive Mike Greenacre.
Currently, more than $5 trillion a year of gold transactions
are made over the counter as opposed to a centralised exchange.