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* ICBC Standard Bank growing bullion footprint
* Chinese-South African lender looking to become bullionclearer
By Clara Denina
LONDON, Jan 8 (Reuters) - ICBC Standard Bank is buying thelease on Deutsche Bank's London gold and silvervault, enlarging its footprint in the city's bullion market,four industry sources close to the companies said on Friday.
China's ICBC, which took a controlling stake inStandard Bank's London-based Global Markets businesslast year, has also applied to become a clearing member of theLondon gold and silver over-the-counter business.
No one at ICBC Standard Bank was immediately available tocomment and Deutsche Bank declined to comment.
The Chinese and South African lender is aiming to fill thegap left by Western banks, which are retreating from commoditiesto cut costs and reduce regulatory burden.
"They (ICBC Standard Bank) have taken on the lease for thevault," the first source said.
Currently, five banks - JP Morgan, HSBC,Bank of Nova Scotia, Barclays and UBS - settle daily bullion transactions between dealers,amounting to more than $5 trillion worth of metal each year inthe London over-the-counter market.
These banks are shareholders of the London Precious MetalsClearing (LPMCL) company. They will decide whether to accept orreject ICBC Standard Bank's application within the next fewmonths. The LPMCL declined to comment.
"They are applying for clearing membership at the moment,but that's still subject to a vote, which has not taken placeyet," the source said.
The vault became operational in June 2014 and has a capacityof 1,500 tonnes. It was built and is managed by British securityservices company G4S.
"The figure that was initially talked about may have beenaround $4 million, but it's way lower now," a second sourcesaid, without disclosing the figure paid for the vault.
Deutsche Bank resigned as a clearing member in 2015, afterclosing its physical precious metals trading arm and withdrawingfrom gold and silver benchmark price setting. (Editing by Pratima Desai and Katharine Houreld)
