Independent precious metals authority the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) has reported that former BIS banking department head Peter Zoellner will join the association as an independent nonexecutive director in the fourth quarter of this year.

This was announced following the authority’s thirty-sixth AGM, held in London, in the UK, on July 11.

Zoellner was previously a member of the governing board and executive director for Financial Market Operations at the Central Bank of Austria. He also holds a PhD from Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration.

Further, Paul Fisher will be stepping down after nine years as chairperson but will stay on until September 2025 to ensure a smooth handover. The LBMA says the appointment of a successor will be announced in due course.

An additional independent nonexecutive director will also be appointed next year.

In addition, two LBMA board members – Rand Refinery CEO and Prestige Bullion director Praveen Baijnath and Bank of China UK CEO Wenjian Fang – were reappointed to the board, while Argor Heraeus co-CEO Robin Kolvenback has been newly elected to the board.

The board members will each serve for a two-year term.

Prior to this year's AGM, the LBMA says nominations for market making member vacancies of the LBMA board were duly received, with two names in contention, namely Morgan Stanley strategic development head Raj Kumar, and ICBC Standard Bank deputy GM Judy Yi Qiu. Kumar was re-elected as market making member.

Meanwhile, in his chairperson’s report delivered at the AGM, Fisher noted that the LBMA would be refreshing its three-year strategy going into 2025 and that it was proactively seeking feedback from members to inform the strategic priorities for the next three years.

He said the LBMA would continue to build strong relations with other industry members, such as the strategic partnership with the World Gold Council, which had been of great value in supporting sustainability objectives and artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) initiatives.

Fisher thanked all committee members and chairpersons, and gave special thanks to Hitoshi Kosai who would also be standing down from the LBMA board this year, and to Ian Warman who recently stood down as the chair of the physical committee.

Additionally, LBMA CEO Ruth Crowell, in her address, shared that LBMA had reached a record number of 165 members, with particular growth in membership recorded in Asia and North America.

She also shared updates on the LBMA’s key workstreams including sustainability, gold as a high-quality liquid asset, the ASM initiative and the Gold Bar Integrity initiative.