Redefining gold custody in Asia’s dynamic markets

Explore how Asia’s gold custody market is evolving to deliver greater transparency, liquidity and trust for institutional investors.

28 July 2026

5 mins

Corporate & investment bankingFinancial institutions and investor groupsFinancing, Securities Services & Custody

This article is featured in the Bankable Insights – The Custodian Edition | Market Infrastructure in Motion e-magazine. Download a copy to view this and more insights.

As Asia continues to see strong institutional demand for physical gold and gold-backed ETFs, the role of custodians is evolving. No longer mere guardians of the bullion vault, leading custodians are integrating comprehensive asset servicing and physical redemption-in-kind solutions to deliver the transparency, liquidity and trust investors are demanding in a more complex, less reliable world.

In March 2026, as investors in North America led the offloading of gold ETFs to the tune of USD12 billion, these outflows were offset by inflows worth USD1.9 billion from Asia. This helped the asset class end Q1 2026 with a 9 per cent year-on-year increase in assets under management, which stood at USD606 billion. As the World Gold Council noted, March’s net sell-off was a blip amid a seven-quarter extended run of inflows.

From a custodial perspective, Singapore’s appeal is obvious: strict property rights, a robust legal system, efficient clearing and settlement infrastructure, and skilled international diplomacy that typically softens the impact of geopolitical crises. All of these help to foster trust – a key ingredient when it comes to transacting and holding gold.

Trust is also crucial in the context of the growing demand for gold ETFs, which are increasingly popular among investors for their high liquidity, real-time price transparency, lower cost structures and ease of access and exit compared to unlisted physical storage.

Markets like Singapore are particularly well-positioned to support this ETF expansion given the availability of locally domiciled fund structures, such as Variable Capital Companies and Collective Investment Schemes Unit Trusts, which together enhance investor access and offer greater tax benefits, liability protection, regulatory clarity and compliance.

From guardians to active enablers

Traditionally, gold custody has been synonymous with secure physical storage and related processes, such as fortified vaults, rigorous access control and meticulous record-keeping. While these elements remain key, they no longer by themselves meet the demand of modern clients. Today’s clients require high levels of transparency, market liquidity and seamless integration with their broader portfolios and financial ecosystems.

This shift is transforming the traditional role of the custodian, according to An Tran Quoc, Executive Director, Product Management, Custody Services, Financing & Securities Services, Standard Chartered.

The role of the custodian is now changing from a passive custody role to being an active enabler to bring value to our clients.

An Tran Quoc

Executive Director, Product Management, Custody Services, FSS

To deliver this value, leading custodians are shifting towards a “one-stop-shop” model that spans the investment lifecycle. They centralise various custody-related workflows under a robust risk management umbrella and enable asset managers to retire legacy models that have forced them to navigate a fragmented, costly web of logistical arrangements for transportation, storage and auditing.

The best custodians today can simultaneously act as a gold provider, vaulting agent, trustee and fund administrator while handling transfer agency services and enabling gold trading.

For instance, Standard Chartered can leverage its position as a top-five bullion bank and one of only 10 London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) market makers to source and secure physical gold, offer market-leading pricing and ensure holdings are fully insured to preserve mark-to-market value via trusted LBMA-approved vault agents.

Demonstrating this capability, Standard Chartered was recently appointed as custodian of the LionGlobal Singapore Physical Gold Fund, Singapore’s first physical gold ETF under which the metal is insured and vaulted in Singapore. As custodian, Standard Chartered will ensure the secure storage of the fund’s physical gold holdings, act as the gold provider to facilitate the purchase and sale of physical gold, and also serve as trustee, fund administrator and transfer agent.

Redemption-in-kind: A credibility anchor

Institutional investors and complex ETF structures can benefit immensely from this evolution in gold custody capabilities, a key defining feature of which is the ability to facilitate “redemption-in-kind” – the on-demand conversion of fund holdings into physical gold.

This capability enhances credibility by ensuring that the gold held within a fund is not merely a digital accounting entry but a fully deliverable, physical asset where each physical gold bar is identified by a unique serial number and its purity percentage.

When an investor redeems their holdings, executing the physical redemptions is a highly complex process requiring the custodian to identify specific bar availability, conduct rigorous background checks on the recipients, align settlement timelines and manage the gold’s secure end-to-end transport from vault to investor, explains An.

Flawlessly managing these complexities is essential to creating the all-important trust between the investor and the financial institution.

The future of servicing gold assets

In the near to mid-term, with appetite for gold expected to remain high thanks to sustained demand from central banks and institutional investors, the custodial infrastructure will continue to transition from basic asset protection to a comprehensive clearing and settlement infrastructure.

Custodian banks will also be expected to move from localised operations to a globally integrated offering to better serve client needs, which have come to include support for launching funds and enhancing market liquidity.

Looking further ahead, the custody ecosystem is preparing for the next wave of asset innovation: digital gold-backed assets and tokenised gold funds. These present potentially significant opportunities for fast and transparent 24/7 market operations with enhanced cross-border distribution and even easier market access for a broader range of investors.

Ultimately, custodians will be expected to evolve alongside their clients and leverage their extensive asset-servicing expertise to deliver integrated, end-to-end solutions that not only meet the soaring regional demand for gold but are also better adapted to a changing global economic landscape.