Sebi issues product specifications related to electronic gold receipts

Sebi on Monday came out with product specifications pertaining to electronic gold receipts.

Last month, the regulator issued the standard operating guidelines for vault managers and depositories in Electronic Gold Receipts (EGR) segment.

According to Sebi, the trading of EGR would take place on stock exchanges in the 'trading unit' and the same would be specified by the stock exchanges.

"The stock exchanges shall ensure that trading unit is not smaller than 10th part of the corresponding deposit unit," it said in a circular.

For instance, on deposit of 100 grams of gold bar, 1 EGR may be created of 100 gm trading unit or 10 EGRs may be created of 10 gm each trading unit.

"Any person desirous of dealing in EGR on the stock exchange shall deposit the gold with the registered vault managers, in the 'deposit unit', which shall be specified by the stock exchanges," the circular said.

Among others, Sebi said the stock exchanges should disseminate adequate information to investors, especially for EGRs with different deposit and trading unit.

"The details of deposit unit/ withdrawal unit and trading unit/ delivery unit shall be clearly spelt out in the contract specifications of the exchange," the circular said.

Under the rules, the entire transaction involving EGRs can be divided into three tranches -- converting physical gold into EGR, trading of EGR on the stock exchange and converting EGR into physical gold.