LBMA extends deadline on daily silver benchmark consultation

LONDON, May 23 (Reuters) - The London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) has extended by one week the deadline for a consultation on the future of the daily silver fixing mechanism to give the industry more time to respond, it said on Friday.

The LBMA launched the survey last week after London Silver Market Fixing Limited announced it would cease to administer the metal's benchmark on Aug. 14. It had set a deadline for Friday.

"There are a lot of people who wanted to respond to the survey, but some of them have to take legal advice before they can make a formal response, so we are extending it to next Friday," a spokesman for the LBMA said. "We want to get in as many people as possible."

Miners, users of the benchmarks, regulators and potential administrators were asked by the LBMA whom they would consider as ideal contributors to a revised pricing mechanism.

On Friday, Barclays Plc (LSE: BARC.L - news) was fined 26 million pounds ($43.8 million) for failures in internal controls that allowed a trader to manipulate the setting of gold prices.

Barclays is the first bank to be fined over attempted manipulation of the 95-year-old London gold market daily "fix".

Greater regulatory scrutiny is forcing major changes in how all precious metals prices are set and the alternative to the silver benchmark will likely be applied to the other 'fixes', sources said. (Reporting By Clara Denina; Editing by Veronica Brown and Susan Thomas)