Rothschild to withdraw from London gold market

Merchant bank Rothschild's has decided to withdraw from London's gold market, as part of a wider strategy to distract itself from all commodities trading out of the capital.

Last year, the business generated just 2.2% of the bank's income, down from more than 8% five years earlier.

Bank chairman David de Rothschild told the BBC: "our income from commodities trading in London has fallen as a percentage of our total income in each of the past five years".

"We have concluded that this is no longer a core area of activity and have, therefore, decided to withdraw from the market."