Sponsors (6)
The bill strengthens oversight and market resilience for physically-settled precious metals by encouraging dispersed vaults and formal approval processes, but it increases compliance, transition, and operational costs and carries a risk of new concentration depending on how approvals are implemented.
Financial institutions and market participants would face lower systemic risk and more reliable physical settlement because vaults would be more geographically dispersed and DCOs would periodically assess settlement access and resiliency.
Financial institutions and investors would get clearer, more accountable oversight because systemically important FMUs and derivatives clearing organizations must use transparent selection/approval processes for storage providers and depositories.
Investors and market participants could see lower storage costs and improved liquidity if more large vaults open near metals hubs and transport routes.
Financial institutions, depositories, and end users would likely face higher compliance and operational costs — including slower onboarding of new providers — which are likely to be passed on as higher storage or trading costs.
Financial institutions and some state governments could face increased concentration risk if DCO approvals concentrate business among a few approved providers, centralizing control over where physical metals are stored.
Taxpayers and small businesses could shoulder some costs because building or designating new large-scale vaults may require public or private investment and transitional subsidies or higher fees.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Adds approval, selection, and oversight rules for precious-metals depositories and metal-service providers and requires periodic physical-settlement and resiliency assessments under the Commodity Exchange Act.
Official title: 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.
Introduced March 19, 2026 by Russell Fulcher · Last progress March 19, 2026
Amends the Commodity Exchange Act to create a clearer, more transparent process for approving and selecting precious metals depositories and metal-service providers used for futures contracts and physical settlement. It directs regulators to require application conditions for approved vaults, expand options for large commercially significant vaults outside the concentrated New York area, and to perform periodic assessments of physical-settlement access and system resiliency to reduce systemic risk in precious-metals markets. The bill aims to lower storage costs and increase competition by encouraging geographically diversified, commercially viable vaults and by giving the responsible regulators explicit authority and criteria to approve depositories and service providers tied to exchange-traded precious metals futures and deliveries.