Clients of Germany’s Deutsche Bank who have invested in the exchange-traded commodity Xetra-Gold are facing problems when they want to obtain physical gold.
Xetra-Gold is a bond on the Deutsche Börse commodities market, and Deutsche Bank is a designated sponsor. On the website, Xetra-Gold says its clients have the right for physical delivery of gold.
However, “the service” was no longer available for “reasons of business policy“. The article went on to say it’s not yet clear whether other banks are still delivering gold through Xetra.
The physical gold is held in custody for the issuer in the Frankfurt vaults of Clearstream Banking AG, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Deutsche Börse.
Despite claims that every virtual gram of gold is backed by the same amount of physical gold, clients have been refused the precious metal upon demand. Xetra-Gold says its holdings amount to over 85 tons of gold.
At the same time, the number of deliveries of physical gold has risen to over 4 tons”, and the assets Xetra-Gold manages reach €3.5 billion.
According to the World Gold Council, Germany has the world’s second largest gold reserves at 3,381 metric tons. However, there has been a public backlash against the government for keeping most of the country’s gold reserves in London and New York.
The majority of Germany’s gold held in country is being stored in Frankfurt. In December 2015 there were reserves of 1,402.5 metric tons.
The Deutsche Bundesbank reports it still holds more than 1,347 metric tons of gold in New York, 434.7 metric tons in London and more than 196 metric tons in Paris.
However, the Roman Catholic Church is thought to have more gold stashed away then the rest of the world combined.
RT.com / Crickey Flash Point Gold News 2018.
