LME Registered Intermediating Broker (RIB) Service

How to get set up with a RIB

Registered Intermediating Brokers (RIBs) are brokers which can arrange London Metal Exchange (LME) and LMEprecious trades between market counterparties. If you would like a RIB to arrange trades on your behalf, you must complete a simple two-step process.

Step 1 - Registration

As a trading customer, the first step in accessing the RIB service is to register with the LME as a user of this service. This can be done by submitting a completed registration form to LME Post-Trade Operations, please download the relevant form here:

• User set up form for Members
• User set up form for clients

For clients, the form allows you to specify all the LME clearing members with whom you have a clearing account, and only those clearing members will be aware of your intention to use the RIB service.

Step 2 - Permissioning

The second step is for you to contact each of your LME clearing members that you wish to clear trades brokered by a RIB and request that they permission the RIB in LMEsmart. If you are a trader at a self-clearing LME member please liaise with your own compliance and operations teams to ensure the appropriate permissioning have been provided in LMEsmart. We have provided a standard template form for ease (downloadable here), but this is not the only template which could be used for this request. Certain clearing members may require the use of different templates or other forms of communication.

LME clearing members should be able to see a record in the system for your company, which was created during the registration step. The LME clearing member may need to input additional customer information into LMEsmart in order to complete the permissioning process (detailed process in section 10 of the LMEsmart Member GUI Guide), and if this is the case they will ask you for that information.

Members can be requested to permission multiple RIBs at the same time and using the same form. New permissions will be effective from 12.00 (midnight) on the following business day. Permissions can be removed in real time whenever necessary.

Once the RIB permissioning process is complete, the RIB can start arranging trades on behalf of the customer and input them to LMEsmart. It is important to note that every transaction will then still need to be approved by your underlying clearing member before the trade can be matched and cleared.

Please email the sales team for any questions on this process or anything else on the Registered Intermediating Broker (RIB) Service.

Registration may take up to two business days to become effective.

Step by step summary

• You should complete the customer registration form and send it to posttradeservices@lme.com. Registrations may take up to two days to become effective.
• You need to request each individual LME clearing member to permission the selected RIB(s). We have provided a form to facilitate this, but it is not mandatory to use this template and equivalent documentation from member firms could be used, if they prefer this.
• The LME clearing member then accesses LMEsmart to permission the selected RIB(s) as per the customer’s request (detailed process in section 10 of the LMEsmart Member GUI Guide). Authorisations become effective the following day
• Authorised RIBs will then be able to submit trades in LMEsmart on your behalf. Please note that the clearing member will have to approve each individual trade submitted by a RIB before the trade can be matched and cleared.

Frequently asked questions

Please download the latest RIB FAQ document here.