Assay & Assurance Agent is one of nine Exchange participant classes.
The Exchange refers to this class as GX-AA. It sits in the Custody & Assurance group and carries the obligations set out below in addition to the requirements common to every participant.
Admission test: Accreditation to the continental reference method, participation in the Exchange round-robin programme, and demonstrated independence from every member whose material it tests.
Exchange Designation
Class Group
Public Register Entry
Rule Change Notice
Obligations of the Class
What it does
An Assay & Assurance Agent samples, tests and certifies consignments presented for delivery. Its certificate is the fact the contract settles against, so the Exchange treats its independence as a market-integrity question, not a commercial one.
Published method, published tolerance
Agents work to the continental reference method and to a published tolerance band. Where two agents disagree within tolerance, the contract terms decide; where they disagree outside it, the Exchange refers the consignment for umpire testing.
Round-robin testing
Every agent tests blind reference samples each quarter. Results are shared with the whole panel, so drift is visible to everyone before it reaches a trade.
Independence
An agent may not certify material in which it, or an affiliate, holds a commercial interest, and may not be remunerated on the basis of the result it returns.
Standing
Published
Admission, restriction, suspension and withdrawal for this class are published on the participant register with the effective date and the rulebook section relied on.
Reviewed annually
Standing is reviewed every year against the admission test, and at any time on a material change in the participant's circumstances.
Appealable
Adverse decisions may be referred to the Exchange review panel, which sits independently of the desk that made the original determination.
