* Company set to appoint administrator, independent chairman
* Platinum, palladium fixers follow gold benchmarkers withreforms
* Scrutiny of benchmarks increased after LIBOR manipulation (Adds background)
By Jan Harvey and Clara Denina
LONDON, July 31 (Reuters) - The London platinum andpalladium fixing company (LPPFC) is seeking a third-partyadministrator for its price benchmarks, it said on Thursday,following a similar move by the operators of the gold "fix"earlier this month.
The company is also finalising arrangements to appoint anindependent consultant to chair the twice-daily fixing calls forplatinum and palladium.
Scrutiny has been increasing over the way precious metalsbenchmarks are set ahead of the implementation of stricterregulations on price setting from the International Organizationof Securities Commissions (IOSCO) this year.
Regulators across Europe, the United States and Asia havealso stepped up scrutiny of financial benchmarking processesfollowing the Libor manipulation case in 2012.
The platinum and palladium benchmarks, or fixes, arecurrently set through a telephone call between four participants- Standard Bank, Goldman Sachs, BASF Metals Ltdand HSBC.
The LPPFC said in a statement it will soon be solicitingproposals for a third party to run the benchmark-settingprocesses for platinum and palladium. The deadline forexpressions of interest is Aug. 6.
"(The company) will be liaising with the Financial ConductAuthority and other stakeholders during this RFP (request forproposals) process," it said.
The platinum fixing company said it had adopted a new codeof conduct and had set up a supervisory committee to oversee thefixing process ahead of the request for proposals, following areview of its practices with reference to the IOSCO principles.
The banks who run the fixing process for gold said earlierthis month they were also seeking an external administrator, aswell as appointing an independent chairman. They expect a newprocess to be in place by end 2014.
A similar process recently took place in the silver market,which yielded an electronic auction mechanism to replace thedaily conference call. That mechanism will be run by CME Groupand Thomson Reuters. (Editing by Jason Neely and David Holmes)
HSBC Holdings (HSBA)
