go to
https://sites.google.com/site/goldelviroxfashion/gold-some-banks-unwilling-to-hand-over-client-held-physical-gold-and-silver
For some time some of the more outspoken gold commentators, like
GATA, have been suggesting that title is held to far more gold and
silver supposedly stored in bank's vaults, than is actually there -
indeed they even have been questioning Central Banks' holdings of
physical bullion - even in Fort Knox. Now there is some anecdotal
evidence emerging on the internet and news programmes that may serve to
back up some of these claims, at least as far as some commercial banks
are concerned.
The theory that physical gold and silver may be in short supply comes
about because there appears to be more gold, in particular, supposedly
held by the banks than is in reality in existence. While banks do not
hold the amount of cash on hand that is owed to depositors at any given
time (hence the serious consequences of a run on a particular bank), the
premise is that the same may well be applied by these banks to stocks
of bullion. In this case, so the banks may say, that if push comes to
shove, they would be able to lay their hands on the actual metal fairly
quickly - or at the very least provide cash in lieu, although this may
not be wanted by the metal owner. It certainly has been assumed that
‘allocated' gold (or silver) is actually kept on hand, but ‘unallocated'
bullion may be loaned or sold, but returned or repurchased should the
need arise. However the analysts will also tell you that the amount of
gold or silver traded in virtual transactions exceeds the global
holdings by a large multiple and if everyone insisted on physical
delivery of their metal, this would be completely impossible to provide.
go to
https://sites.google.com/site/goldelviroxfashion/gold-some-banks-unwilling-to-hand-over-client-held-physical-gold-and-silver
If a bank holds physical gold or silver on a client's behalf, storage
fees will be being charged, but if that gold or silver is not actually
being held in the vaults, but has been say leased out to a third party,
would it be fraudulent to continue charging for this ‘storage'? - a
point which probably has yet to be challenged legally.
But such days may be close. A couple of days ago King World News of
the U.S. quoted Jim Rickards, a long term proponent of gold market
manipulation by banks and governments and extremely well respected - as
saying that he knows of an investor in physical gold who had to haggle
with a Swiss bank, which was supposedly storing gold for him, for a full
month to achieve physical delivery of his own owned bullion - a
considerable amount - $40 millions worth. And the gold was only
returned to him after threats to resort to legal action and give the
story to the media.
Subsequently, Gold Money founder James Turk, told the same news
progamme that he has already come across a number of similar cases and
recounted a specific one showing that investors in even relatively small
amounts of physical bullion have experienced similar problems. In this
case the investor held some $550,000 (20,000 ounces) in physical
silver, also supposedly held on his behalf in a Swiss bank, and has been
negotiating with them for two months so far without being able to take
delivery of his own silver. The bank had apparently been suggesting
that he take the cash value, but he was holding out for delivery of the
physical bullion.
Both these instances, and the other unquoted ones referred to by
Turk, could be taken to suggest that the banks did not have the
investors' specific allocated gold or silver in their vaults, despite
charging fees for its ‘storage'. Rickards also went so far as to
suggest that holders of physical bullion store their metal in privately
run vaults rather than within the banking system.
So far all these reports have been anecdotal with neither the
specific investors not the banks involved being named. But if this is
endemic in the system and the banks are not holding even the ‘allocated'
bullion they say they are it can't be too long before more detailed
cases come to light. This could really throw the precious metals
markets into turmoil and precipitate the short squeeze to end all short
squeezes if holders of physical metal lose confidence in the banks which
are holding their bullion - if indeed they are!
go to
https://sites.google.com/site/goldelviroxfashion/gold-some-banks-unwilling-to-hand-over-client-held-physical-gold-and-silver
