How do LBMA lease rates for silver get calculated and where are they published?
Executive summary
LBMA silver lease rates are market-derived interest rates representing the annualized cost to borrow physical silver in the over‑the‑counter (OTC) leasing market, compiled from lease/loan transactions and reported positions; LBMA publishes detailed lease data (LLD/LLD VIPT) through its Trade Data service and distributes reports to subscribers via Nasdaq’s FTP at a set daily time (11:00am GMT) [1]. Public commentary and benchmarks that journalists and traders cite (and that reflect those LBMA figures) also appear in market reporting from outlets like Bloomberg and trade newsletters that reference LBMA data [2] [3].
1. What “lease rate” means and how the market generates the inputs
A lease rate for silver is fundamentally an interest rate: the cost paid by a borrower to borrow physical metal for a specified tenor, quoted on an annualised basis, and it arises from bilateral OTC leases, swaps and inventory loans among bullion banks, refiners and other market participants [1]. Those actual trades and deposit/loan flows—tenors, volumes and prices—are the raw inputs that reveal how much borrowers are paying and how much lenders are willing to accept, producing the market signal called the lease rate [1].
2. How LBMA collects and compiles the data
The LBMA’s Trade Data reporting framework aggregates OTC lease, loan and deposit activity among its member firms into monitored products (including the Lease Loan Deposit—LLD—reports and the LLD VIPT tranche reports), making available counts of tenors, volumes and derived lease rates to subscribers; LBMA moved to publish comprehensive OTC lease market data and enhanced that feed in October 2020 [1]. The association therefore does not invent a theoretical rate so much as publish the market’s traded and reported activity in a standardised form [1].
3. Calculation mechanics and what’s public versus private
Public descriptions emphasise that lease rates are inferred from actual borrowing/lending economics—essentially the priced spread for temporarily transferring physical metal—rather than a single formula publicly broadcast, and LBMA’s subscriber reports present the aggregated rates, tenors and volumes collected from contributing firms [1]. Historical context shows the LBMA once offered GOFO/SIFO-style forward offers for gold and silver but stopped publishing SIFO in 2012 and GOFO in 2015, illustrating that some forward/derived metrics were discontinued as they became less reliable or were subject to regulatory scrutiny [4]. The exact data‑processing algorithm for converting individual OTC reports into the LBMA’s published lease metrics is described in LBMA product documentation and the subscriber data feed rather than in short-form public articles [1] [4].
4. Where the LBMA lease rates and related data are published
LBMA Trade Data is the primary official publication channel: the organisation publishes trade data reports (including the LLD VIPT) at 11:00am GMT and distributes subscriber access via Nasdaq’s FTP file delivery service (NASDAQ FDS) for those who subscribe to the market-data products [1]. Market observers and media then republish or summarise LBMA‑sourced lease figures when market tightness or spikes occur, as evidenced by Bloomberg and industry outlets reporting percent lease moves in October 2025 using LBMA data [2] [3].
5. Why lease rates spike and how observers use LBMA figures
Sharp spikes in reported LBMA lease rates are interpreted as signs of deliverable tightness—temporary impediments to moving physical metal—rather than absolute depletion of supply, a distinction the LBMA and market analysts emphasise when explaining dramatic moves [5]. That interpretation shows up repeatedly in market coverage: when the London 1‑month silver lease rate jumped into double‑ and triple‑digit annualised figures in 2025, commentators used LBMA trade and vault data to diagnose strained lending availability and elevated costs of rolling short positions [5] [2] [3].
6. Limits and competing data sources
While LBMA Trade Data is the authoritative conduit for London market lease activity, independent or derived forward rates (e.g., proprietary SIFO/GOFO reconstructions or Monetary Metals’ forward offered rates) exist and are used for comparison because LBMA discontinued some legacy public forward series; those alternatives may use other inputs and models and therefore can differ from LBMA‑reported figures [4]. The sources provided do not publish the step‑by‑step mathematical formula LBMA uses to aggregate contributor reports into headline lease rates in freely accessible prose, so exact algorithmic detail is only fully visible to subscribers and in LBMA technical documentation cited by the Trade Data product [1] [4].