Deutsche Bank has entered a Memorandum of Understanding with Singapore Exchange and other industry participants to act as a gold clearing bank for Loco Singapore, in a media release dated 14 June 2026. Loco Singapore is an over-the-counter gold clearing and settlement system, developed under an initiative led by the Monetary Authority of Singapore and the Singapore Bullion Market Association. The release states that SGX will establish the system by the end of 2026, that interbank trading is expected to build from 2027, and that the system will support both large bars and kilobars. Deutsche Bank frames the initiative as a response to Asia-led demand from central banks and from institutional and private investors.
Settlement under the system runs between clearing banks. A corporate or family-office holding in Singapore sits with a commercial vault operator under a storage contract, and the clearing arrangement operates separately from that contract. The system will support two bar standards. An LBMA Good Delivery large bar contains 350 to 430 fine ounces at a minimum fineness of 995.0 and settles against its own weight list. A kilobar is one kilogram at 999.9 and settles against a fixed nominal weight. A holding assembled in 100 g, 250 g or 500 g bars matches neither standard, and entering settlement in either one requires recasting by an accredited refiner.
An allocation record identifies specific bars by serial number, refiner mark, weight and assay at a named vault, with the counterparty named in the vault register. A clearing account carries a position that settles against another account. Whether metal held under a serial-level allocation can settle through Loco Singapore while that record stands is a rule question, and SGX has not published the system’s rules. Through 2026 an existing Singapore placement is governed by the storage contract, the vault register entry and the release instruction already written under it.
The memorandum records Deutsche Bank’s participation. The clearing system’s rules, its membership and its launch are set by SGX, under an initiative led by MAS and the Singapore Bullion Market Association.