SILVER Act

The SILVER Act aims to mitigate systemic risk and foster competition in precious metals markets by addressing the current geographic concentration of storage facilities. It seeks to enhance market liquidity, resilience, and access by diversifying the locations where physically traded precious metals are stored, thereby reducing costs for market participants. The legislation mandates that systemically important derivatives clearing organizations (DCOs) establish and publish objective and transparent criteria for approving precious metals depositories, including a formal application process. These criteria must consider factors such as geographic diversity , competition, risk management, and storage costs. A core provision requires DCOs to approve at least two precious metals depositories in each of the four continental U.S. time zones : Eastern, Central, Mountain, and Pacific. This ensures increased market resiliency, liquidity, and access, promoting cost efficiency while maintaining security standards. Furthermore, DCOs must periodically assess the ease of access for market participants regarding physical settlement to ensure system availability and resilience.