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* Gold, silver discussions are in early stage -commissioner
* CFTC looking into the range of index-setting
* Talks not as serious as Libor investigation
By Tom Polansek
BOCA RATON, Fla., March 14 (Reuters) - The U.S. CommodityFutures Trading Commission has engaged in "a couple" ofconversations about whether the daily setting of gold and silverprices in London is open to manipulation, Commissioner ScottO'Malia said on Thursday.
The agency's look into the situation is "fairly immature inits development," he told reporters at a futures conference inFlorida.
The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed sources, reported onWednesday that the CFTC was examining various aspects ofprice-setting, including whether it is sufficiently transparent.
"What was stated in that story was more than I think we'redoing," O'Malia said. "I think we've had a couple conversations.We're looking at energy, indexes, prices, how they're set. We'lllook at all of the range of index-setting."
The discussions about gold and silver come after theLibor-rigging scandal that exposed widespread manipulation byBritish banks, including Barclays Plc, of the interestrate-setting benchmark. The scandal has increased globalregulators' scrutiny of other money market benchmarks.
Gold prices are set twice daily by five banks viateleconference, while three banks set silver prices. Thosefixings are used to determine spot prices for the billions ofdollars of the two precious metals traded each day.
"It's safe to say that we're looking at anything that has anindex-setting process, but it's not at the same level as theLibor investigation," O'Malia said.
