Swiss, French call to bring home gold reserves as Dutch move 122 tons out of US

Published time: November 28, 2014 05:25

Reuters / 

The financial crisis in Europe is prompting some nations to repatriate their gold reserves to national vaults. The Netherlands has moved $5 billion worth of gold from New York, and some are calling for similar action from France, Switzerland, and Germany.

An unmatched pace of money printing by major central banks has boosted concerns in European countries over the safety of their gold reserves abroad.

The Dutch central bank – De Nederlandsche Bank – was one of the latest to make the move. The bank announced last Friday that it moved a fifth of its total 612.5-metric-ton gold reserve from New York to Amsterdam earlier in November.

It was done in an effort to redistribute the gold stock in “a more balanced way,” and to boost public confidence, the bank explained.

“With this adjustment the Dutch Central Bank joins other banks that are keeping a larger share of their gold supply in their own country,” the bank said in a statement. “In addition to a more balanced division of the gold reserves...this may also contribute to a positive confidence effect with the public.”

Dutch gold reserves are now divided as follows: 31 percent in Amsterdam, 31 percent in New York, 20 percent in Ottawa, Canada and 18 percent in London.

Meanwhile, Switzerland has organized the ‘Save Our Swiss Gold’ referendum, which is taking place on November 30. If passed, it would force the Swiss National Bank to convert a fifth of its assets into gold and repatriate all of its reserves from vaults in the UK and Canada.

“The Swiss initiative is merely part of an increasing global scramble towards gold and away from the endless printing of money. Huge movements of gold are going on right now,” Koos Jansen, an Amsterdam-based gold analyst for the Singaporean precious metal dealer BullionStar, told the Guardian.

France has also recently joined in on the trend, with the leader of the far-right National Front party Marine Le Pen calling on the central bank to repatriate the country’s gold reserves.

In an open letter to the governor of the Banque de France, Christian Noyer, Le Pen also demanded an audit of 2,435 tons of physical gold inventory.

Germany tried and failed to adopt a similar path in early 2013 by announcing a plan to repatriate some of its gold reserves back from the US and France.

READ MORE: No ‘gold rush’: Germany keeps reserves in the US

The efforts fizzled out this summer, when it was announced that Germany decided to leave $635 billion worth of gold in US vaults.

Germany only keeps about a third of its gold at home. Forty-five percent is held in New York, 13 percent in London, 11 percent in Paris, and only 31 percent in the Bundesbank in Frankfurt.

original report here::

Goldman Sachs, HSBC, BASF sued in first US metals price manipulation case

Published time: November 26, 2014 14:09

Platinum bars (Reuters / Michael Dalder)

Four major global firms are to appear in a New York court accused of manipulating platinumm and palladium prices for eight years. The law suit is the first of its kind in US history.

Those accused include units of Goldman Sachs Group, the world’s biggest global investment bank, HSBC Holdings, Europe's largest bank by market value, the metals unit of BASF SE (BAS) ), the world’s largest chemical company, and Standard Bank Group from South Africa, the world’s largest producer of platinum and second largest producer of palladium after Russia.

The plaintiffs claim the manipulations of precious metals prices, which is believed to have started in 2007, have cost purchasers millions of dollars, Reuters reports.

The companies have been sued for using insider information about client purchases and sale orders to profit from slight movements in the price of platinum group metals, be they used for jewelry or for industrial use, such as the production of automotive catalytic converters, fuel cells, etc.

The illegal sharing of customers’ data enabled the banks to undertake a “front-running” price manipulation, with the help of fabricating “spoof” orders, which is claimed violates US antitrust and commodities laws.

The suit was filed in the Manhattan Federal Court on Tuesday by Modern Settings LLC, a Florida-based maker of jewelry and police badges. All four defendant companies refused to comment on the issue.

Last year BASF’s metal unit generated €2.36 billion ($2.95 billion) revenue in precious metals trading, according to Reuters.

READ MORE: Banking breeds cheating for financial gain - Swiss researchers

Regulators around the world have been tightening the screws on the global banks over the manipulation with some of benchmark rates, such as rates on the foreign exchange markets and the inter-bank London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR).

In spring 2014 the Swiss regulator became the first to confirm it had uncovered illegal currency rate rigging by world’s leading financial organizations, Goldman Sachs, and HSBC included.

By November the world’s biggest banks had agreed to pay out $4.3 billion to settle an investigation into their alleged rigging of foreign exchange rates.

READ MORE: Banks fined record $4.3 bn for corrupting integrity of currency trading

Original report <<here >>

A Major International Monetary Crisis is Looming: The Suppression of Gold and Silver? Is COMEX being Cornered?

By Bill Holter and Miles Franklin

Global Research, November 25, 2014

It is with a deep sense of gratitude that I have had all of you as friends and associates during what has been a long war, not a good war, but a very long “financial war”.  As you know from these writings; this has been a war conducted by the Federal Reserve against the entire world, aided and abetted by major international banks via the manipulation of most every market on the planet.  The ethics and morals our country was originally built on …be damned!

The events mentioned herein relative to the suppression of gold and silver using dollar hegemony as the tool indicate a major international monetary crisis is dead ahead, this is obvious.  Power in the hands of the few have made massive gains for those at the top of the economic ladder while the average man has become a debt slave to the few.  There are of course the laws of Mother Nature and “unintended consequences”.  Those at the top who intend to “rule the world” are being challenged from the East in what I believe to be almost a winner take all “war”.  It did not have to be this way but the “West” has forced this.

Gold Heading To $1,400 This Year: US Global's CEO - Kitco News

Published on 18 Feb 2014 | Kitco News speaks with US Global Investors' CEO Frank Holmes about gold's price movements last week and where he expects the yellow metal is headed. "Now with gold going above the 200-day, there's a sentiment of relief and it is positive," he says. However, Holmes says that this does not mean investors are 'runaway bullish' on gold just yet. Holmes is optimistic about gold's direction, stating that one of the major headwinds for the metal last year will probably soften in 2014. "One of the big headwinds last year in government policies was CPI numbers fell and interest rates for government bonds went up...that was a big headwind for gold," he says. "I think you'll see that change this year; you're going to see CPI numbers start to rise and lots of capacity in the economy means rates are not going to rise; so, we'll probably see a negative real rate of return which would take gold up to around $1,400 an ounce." Tune in now to hear more from Frank Holmes and to hear which mining stocks he is eyeing. Kitco News, February 18, 2014.

CPM Called Jan. Gold Target, Now Eyes $1,320 in March

Published on Jan 29, 2014 | Kitco News' Commodities Confidential is back with CPM's Jeff Christian talking about gold and some factors that led to higher prices in January. Earlier this month, CPM said gold prices could reach $1,280 while prices could go even higher by early-Feb or late March. "We do think we will see $1,320 but it's probably more likely late March than early February," he says. Looking over at emerging markets, Christian says monetary authorities are suggesting higher interest rates in EM nations in order to support tumbling currencies. "I'm not really sure that solves the problem," he says. Christian adds that the issues in emerging economies will unlikely lead to a 'full blown crisis.' Christian also discusses cash crunch concerns in China and the future of Indian gold import restrictions. Tune in now for a more in-depth look into the gold market with Jeffrey Christian. Kitco News

Germany Has Recovered A Paltry 5 Tons Of Gold From The NY Fed After One Year

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 01/19/2014

On December 24, we posted an update on Germany's gold repatriation process: a year after the Bundesbank announced its stunning decision, driven by Zero Hedge revelations, to repatriate 674 tons of gold from the New York Fed and the French Central Bank, it had managed to transfer a paltry 37 tons. This amount represents just 5% of the stated target, and was well below the 84 tons that the Bundesbank would need to transport each year to collect the 674 tons ratably over the 8 year interval between 2013 and 2020. The release of these numbers promptly angered Germans, and led to the rise of numerous allegations that the reason why the transfer is taking so long is that the gold simply is not in the possession of the offshore custodians, having been leased, or worse, sold without any formal or informal announcement. However, what will certainly not help mute "conspiracy theorists" is today's update from today's edition of Die Welt, in which we learn that only a tiny 5 tons of gold were sent from the NY Fed. The rest came from Paris.

As Welt states, "Konnten die Amerikaner nicht mehr liefern, weil sie die bei der Federal Reserve of New York eingelagerten gut 1500 Tonnen längst verscherbelt haben?" Or, in English, did the US sell Germany's gold? Maybe. The official explanation was as follows: "The Bundesbank explained [the low amount of US gold] by saying that the transports from Paris are simpler and therefore were able to start quickly." Additionally, the Bundesbank had the "support" of the BIS "which has organized more gold shifts already for other central banks and has appropriate experience - only after months of preparation and safety could transports start with truck and plane." That would be the same BIS that in 2011 lent out a record 632 tons of gold...

Going back to the main explanation, we wonder: how exactly is a gold transport "simpler" because it originates in Paris and not in New York? Or does the NY Fed gold travel by car along the bottom of the Atlantic, and is French gold transported by a Vespa scooter out of the country?

Supposedly, there was another reason: "The bullion stored in Paris already has the elongated shape with beveled edges of the "London Good Delivery" standard. The bars in the basement of the Fed on the other hand have a previously common form. They will need to be remelted [to LGD standard]. And the capacity of smelters are just limited."

So... New York Fed-held gold is not London Good Delivery, and there is a bottleneck in remelting capacity? You don't say...

Furthermore, Welt goes on to "debunk" various "conspiracy websites" that the reason why the gold is being melted is not to cover up some shortage (and to scrap serial numbers), but that the gold is exactly the same gold as before. Finally, to silences all skeptics, the Bundesbank says that "there is no reason for complaint - the weight and purity of the gold bars were consistent with the books match." In conclusion, Welt reports that in 2014 "larger transport volumes" can be expected from New York: between 30 and 50 tons.

Here we would be remiss to not point out that the reason why the German people and the Bundesbank have every reason to be skeptical is that as Zero Hedge reported exclusively in November 2012, before the Buba's shocking repatriation announcement and was the reason for the escalation in lack of faith between central banks, it was the Fed and the Bank of England who in 1968 knowingly sent Germany "bad delivery" gold.  Which is why we have a feeling that the pace of gold transportation will certainly not accelerate until such time as the German people much more vocally demand an immediate transit of all their gold held at the New York Fed: after all, it's there right - surely the Bundesbank can be trusted to melt the gold (if any exists of course) into London Good Delivery or whatever format it wants.

Unless of course, the gold isn't there...

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