The government of England has made the Bank of England their official banker, since it handles and manages their account. Not only does it look after foriegn accounts, but it is also responsible for handling the gold reserves of the country. The issue of bank notes with the gold introduced with the Bank Charter Act in 1844, made the Bank of England the sole provider for bank notes. All the banks in England are associated with the Bank of England. It also acts as an emergency loan provider.

The price of gold like all other commodities are determined by supply and demand. Although unlike other commodities, gold cannot be consumed, and all the gold that was mined previously still exists. In effect, this means more fluctuation, and that it can come on the market again to be sold, when the price is right.

Central banks and the IMF play an important role in the price of gold. It is said that at the End of 2004, the central banks and official organisations held 19% of the total amount of gold that was mined. European central banks, such as the Bank of England, and the Swiss National Bank have been significant in the list of sellers of gold since 1999.

The Bank of Nova Scotia, HSBC Bank, JP Morgan Chase Bank, Deutsche Bank AG and the UBS are the five clearing banks who have a close relationship with each other. They follow the London gold price clearning mechanism, and have the control of all the gold being shipped from all over the world. Once the clearing mechanism is over, it becomes available for developers of jewellery, although many customers deal directly with the clearers as well.

The gold fix is the most important attribute of the Over the Counter Trading. It is controlled by the major market makers, which includes four names: Deutsche Bank AG, Society Gnrale, The Bank of Nova Scotia, and the HSBC Bank USA London Branch.

At a fixed rate, the price of gold is set by enabling the sellers and buyers of gold to perform trade at the set rates of the market. An auction is organised twice a day, afternoon and evening by the members of the gold fix in London. In this auction, their objective is to determine if the number of selling parties equals with the number of interested buyers or not.

This sets the price of gold at a fixed rate, which makes it possible for gold traders to trade at fair market prices. Twice a day, morning and afternoon, members of the gold fix in London conduct an auction. This auction aims at finding the price where the number of buying orders match with the number of selling orders. This price is published widely in newspaper, and posted on the internet where guidance is provided to those who are in the buying or selling of gold at that very instant. This is a widely used method that is used by the traders to fix the price of gold for physical gold transactions.

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