Contracts between bullion exchange members, bullion clearing members and consumers must be in writing. Enforcement is governed by the applicable rules and bye-laws of the relevant bullion exchange or bullion clearing corporation.

Membership qualification criteria for a bullion exchange or bullion clearing corporation must be set out in bye-laws. These must cover organisational structure, professional employees' qualifications and experience, financial-strength thresholds, minimum net-worth requirements, disqualifications, membership categories, and limits on trading, clearing, or settlement activity. The framework must also prescribe membership application procedures and measures to prevent conflicts of interest and promote ethical conduct.

Every bullion exchange and bullion clearing corporation must establish a framework governing the sharing and monitoring of confidential and sensitive data. The framework must specify sharing methods, permitted data types, and an escalation matrix. It must maintain a digital database of information shared, recipients, and reasons for sharing, supported by technology-enabled monitoring and periodic compliance audits. Individual accountability must be assigned for breaches of the data-sharing policy.

Bullion clearing corporations must establish and publish a policy framework for non-discriminatory clearing and settlement access for shareholder and non-shareholder bullion exchanges. The framework must specify the basis for shareholder access and the compliance requirements for non-shareholder access. Bullion exchanges and clearing corporations must provide equal, unrestricted, transparent and fair access to all persons without bias toward associates or related entities. Non-discriminatory access issues are conclusively determined by the Authority.

Utilization of profits and investments by a bullion exchange and bullion clearing corporation must comply with norms specified by the Authority. Fund deployment or other activities require prior approval, except treasury investments made under a governing-board-approved investment policy. Unrelated or non-incidental fund-deployment activities may be undertaken through a separate legal entity, subject to the Authority's approval.

Settlement Guarantee Fund arrangements require every bullion clearing corporation to maintain a fund guaranteeing settlement of bullion-exchange trades. Contributions must be made by the bullion exchange, clearing corporation, trading members and clearing members as specified by the Authority. The Fund is used to complete settlement upon a clearing member's default. Its corpus must be sufficient to meet default-related obligations, periodically stress tested, and maintained at least at the higher of the monthly stress-test requirement or USD 1 million.

Every bullion exchange must establish a Consumer Education and Protection Fund. The fund is intended to promote consumer education and provide compensation to consumers where bullion trading members default, in accordance with requirements specified by the Authority.

Bullion exchanges and bullion clearing corporations must appoint a Chief Information Security Officer separately from the Chief Technology Officer. The Chief Information Security Officer oversees the entity's cyber security posture and reports directly to the Managing Director or Chief Executive Officer.

Appointment of a Chief Legal Officer is mandatory for bullion exchanges and bullion clearing corporations that are not subsidiaries or joint ventures of market infrastructure institutions. Subsidiaries and joint ventures may rely on parental legal assistance, but must appoint a Chief Legal Officer if that assistance is unavailable. The Authority may require appointment based on operational size and scale. The Chief Legal Officer mitigates legal risk by vetting bye-laws, amendments, cross-border legal documents, and undertaking functions assigned by the governing board or the Authority.

Chief Risk Officer appointment is mandatory for every bullion exchange and bullion clearing corporation. The officer must identify and monitor operational risks, initiate necessary mitigation measures, oversee overall risk management, and submit a half-yearly risk-management report to the Authority within 90 days after each half-year ends.

Every bullion exchange and bullion clearing corporation must appoint a Compliance Officer to monitor compliance with applicable statutory and regulatory requirements and address customer grievances. Observed non-compliance must be reported immediately and independently to the Authority. The Compliance Officer must also submit quarterly reports within 45 days after the end of each quarter in the prescribed manner.

Statutory committees must be constituted by bullion exchanges and bullion clearing corporations as specified by the Authority. The Authority prescribes the required committees and the framework for their composition, quorum and functions, creating a committee-based governance mechanism for bullion market infrastructure institutions.

Bullion exchanges and bullion clearing corporations must segregate their functions into critical operations; regulatory, legal, compliance, risk management and customer grievances; and other functions, including business development. Critical operations and regulatory, legal, compliance, risk management and customer-grievance functions must receive higher priority in resource allocation. Resource adequacy for these two priority verticals must be assessed periodically and objectively.

Governing boards, directors, committee members and key management personnel of bullion exchanges and bullion clearing corporations must comply with the prescribed Code of Conduct. Directors and key management personnel must be fit and proper persons. Known wrongdoing must be reported immediately to the governing board or the Authority. Non-compliance or conflicts of interest may lead to action, including removal or termination of appointment, following an opportunity of being heard.

Appointment, renewal, removal, termination and compensation of a managing director require prior approval of the Authority. Service is limited to terms of no more than five years, with a fresh appointment process after the first term, an aggregate maximum tenure of ten years, and a maximum age of sixty-five years. Independence restrictions prohibit specified shareholder, member and associated-entity interests or positions. Removal for non-compliance requires governing board action and prior approval, while the managing director must receive an opportunity of being heard before removal or termination.

Appointment and re-appointment of non-independent directors require prior approval of the Authority. Public interest directors require prior approval, may serve renewable three-year terms subject to performance review, and must be below seventy-five years of age. They cannot hold simultaneous board positions with specified subsidiaries or other Market Infrastructure Institutions, must disclose conflicts involving services to trading or clearing members, and are subject to a three-year cooling-off period before becoming non-independent directors or directors of the relevant subsidiary.

Governing boards of bullion exchanges and bullion clearing corporations must include non-independent directors, public interest directors and a managing director, with public interest directors at least equal in number to non-independent directors. Trading and clearing members, their associates and agents are generally barred from board membership, subject to specified exclusions. Public interest director parity is required for quorum and valid voting. Boards must collectively maintain prescribed expertise, including bullion and securities markets, finance, legal and regulatory practice, technology, risk management, management or administration.

Record-keeping obligations require bullion exchanges and bullion clearing corporations, in addition to duties under other applicable laws, to maintain and preserve all books, registers, documents and records concerning the issue or transfer of their securities for at least eight years. The obligation covers records connected with securities issuance and transfers and establishes a minimum preservation period for compliance purposes.

Bullion exchanges and bullion clearing corporations must submit quarterly shareholding disclosures to the Authority within fifteen days after each quarter ends. Each filing must identify the ten largest shareholders, including the number and percentage of shares held by each, and must name all shareholders who acquired shares during the relevant quarter.

Shareholding-limit monitoring requires bullion exchanges and bullion clearing corporations to maintain an adequate mechanism for continuous compliance with applicable shareholding conditions. The framework must operate at all times to ensure adherence to ownership limits governing these market institutions.