News Bites
German Central Bank Assures Citizens That Stored Gold Is Real
(Kitco News) - Non-believers and naysayers will soon be convinced that all the gold stored in Germany is there and is authentic, with the German central bank announcing an exhibit showing off its recently repatriated gold.
Germany’s Bundesbank is launching a six-month exhibition this week that is dedicated to gold. The country’s reserves will be showcased in the form of unique gold bars and coins owned by the central bank, board member Carl-Ludwig Thiele said during exhibit’s opening ceremony.
“I can assure you that the gold of the Germans is stored and administered under the highest standards,” Thiele stated. “This will remain so in the future.”
The showcase was announced following the publication of a book titled “The Gold of the Germans,” which explores the bank’s precious metals collection as if it was “held in [the readers’] own hands,” Thiele noted.
The act of Germany storing its gold inside its own borders is a big deal for the country, especially after it went through the process of repatriating a part of its reserves from Paris and New York last year.
Last summer, the central bank completed the move of 674 tonnes from the vaults of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the Banque de France three years ahead of schedule. And prior to that, Germany had repatriated 940 tons of gold from the Bank of England.
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This is a very significant step for the country, Vince Lanci, editor for marketslant.com and the founder of Echobay Partners, told Kitco News last year.
“After the financial crisis, you started seeing many European countries wanting their gold back. This whole thing started because they were more concerned about control over ownership,” Lanci said.
On top of that, conspiracy theories started to float around, making accusations of Germany’s foreign gold reserves being lost or used by the other central banks, leading to the German Federal Court of Auditors asking for an inspection of foreign gold reserves in 2012.
Frankfurt now holds just over half of Germany's total 3,378 tons of gold reserves, with 36.6% left in New York and 12.8% in London. The gold was initially stored outside of Germany during the Cold War.
