Section 1 Short title
This Act may be cited as the “System Integrity through Licensed Vault Expansion and Resilience Act” or the “SILVER Act”.
System Integrity through Licensed Vault Expansion and Resilience Act
A BILL
To amend the Commodity Exchange Act to reduce systemic risk while increasing geographical diversity and competition with respect to depositories for the storage of precious metals, and for other purposes.
Sec. 2 Findings
Congress finds the following:
Precious metals exchanges currently require physically traded metals to be stored within close proximity to New York City.
Geographic concentration creates systemic risk vulnerabilities, reduces available liquidity, and increases the cost to market participants.
Recent liquidity events in global metals markets underscore the need to minimize regulatory barriers that reduce the available supply of metals to the publicly traded marketplace.
Notwithstanding the current limited supply, the security standards of existing vaults supporting publicly traded exchanges are outstanding and have enhanced the confidence of market participants.
Market liquidity and participant confidence will be enhanced by the addition of storage vaults of relative scale and commercial importance in the marketplace.
Additional supply in lower-cost markets, especially markets that are near hubs of precious metals activity and interstate transportation networks, would also reduce storage costs, enhance competition in the storage marketplace, and promote greater market access to investors.
It is in the public interest for systemically important financial market utilities to provide a clear and transparent selection process for precious metals storage facilities within their network.
Sec. 3 Precious metals depositories used in connection with futures contracts
Section 5b(c)(2) of the Commodity Exchange Act (7 U.S.C. 7a–1(c)(2)) is amended—
in subparagraph (E)(vii), by inserting “, including risks related to the geographic concentration of depositories for the storage of gold, silver, platinum, and palladium (referred to in this paragraph as precious metals),” after “clause (vi)”;
in subparagraph (F)—
by redesignating clause (iii) as clause (iv); and
by inserting after clause (ii) the following:
“(iii) Approval of precious metals depositories
“(I) In general—A derivatives clearing organization that clears agreements, contracts, transactions, or swaps that can result in the physical delivery of precious metals and is a designated financial market utility (as defined in section 803 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (12 U.S.C. 5462)) (referred to in this paragraph as a systemically important derivatives clearing organization) shall—
“(aa) develop, publish, and employ objective and transparent criteria in evaluating and selecting depositories for the storage of precious metals used in connection with a contract of sale of a commodity for future delivery; and
“(bb) provide a formal process for those depositories to apply for that selection.
“(II) Selection factors—In selecting depositories under subclause (I), a systemically important derivatives clearing organization shall—
“(aa) assess and account for, among other factors, geographic diversity, competition, risk management, storage costs to members and participants, and systemic risk implications; and
“(bb) approve new depositories in the context of a public interest in increased geographic diversity, increased liquidity, market resiliency, market access, competition, and cost efficiency, consistent with appropriate security and quality standards.
“(III) Geographical requirement
“(aa) In general—A systemically important derivatives clearing organization shall select at least 2 depositories described in subclause (I) in each time zone described in item (bb).
“(bb) Time zone—A time zone referred to in item (aa) is each of the following:
“(AA) Eastern time.
“(BB) Central time.
“(CC) Mountain time.
“(DD) Pacific time.”
in subparagraph (I)—
in clause (ii)(II), by striking “and” at the end;
in clause (iii), by striking the period at the end and inserting “; and”; and
by adding at the end the following:
“(iv) periodically assess the ease of access for market participants with respect to the physical settlement of any commodity, regardless of the geographic location within the United States, to ensure system availability and resiliency.”
in subparagraph (L)(iii)—
in subclause (IV), by striking “and” at the end;
by redesignating subclause (V) as subclause (VI); and
by inserting after subclause (IV) the following:
“(V) in the case of a systemically important derivatives clearing organization, conditions for applying to, and receiving approval from, the systemically important derivatives clearing organization as a metal service provider, such as a depository for the storage of precious metals; and”
in subparagraph (N)(i), by inserting “, including with respect to the approval of a metal service provider, such as a depository for the storage of precious metals” after “trade”.