You are here

Bank of England gets pretty intimate with the London Bullion Market Association

Section: Daily Dispatches

4:14p ET Monday, June 30, 2014

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

GATA's friend and consultant R.M. calls attention to some documents demonstrating that the Bank of England's involvement with the gold market may be even more intimate than generally understood.

In a presentation to the London Bullion Market Association's Fifth Annual Assaying and Refining Seminar, held in March 2013, a Bank of England customer relationship manager, Luke Thorn, disclosed that the bank participates on three LBMA committees.

... Dispatch continues below ...



ADVERTISEMENT

Buy precious metals free of value-added tax throughout Europe

Europe Silver Bullion is a fast-growing dealer sourcing its products from renowned mints, refiners, and distributors. Because of a legal loophole that will close soon, you can acquire the world's most popular bullion coins free of value-added tax throughout the European Union. You can collect your order in person at our headquarters in Tallinn, Estonia, or have it delivered in any of the 28 EU countries.

Europe Silver Bullion is owned and operated by North American and European experts in selling, storing, and transporting precious metals. We have an extensive product inventory of silver, gold, platinum, and palladium, and our network spans the world.

Visit us at www.europesilverbullion.com.



"We are not a member of the LBMA," Thorn said of the bank, "but we continue to play a key role in the London market. We have observer status on the Management, Physical, and Vault Committees."

Thorn's presentation is posted at the LBMA's Internet site here --

http://www.lbma.org.uk/assets/ThornAR13Trans.pdf

-- and at GATA's Internet site here:

http://www.gata.org/files/LBMAAssayingSeminar-Thorn-03-2013.pdf

And at the LBMA's Precious Metals Conference in Rome last September, the head of the Bank of England's Customer Banking Division, Matthew Hunt, confirmed the bank's participation on two of those committees:

"More specifically on gold," Hunt said, "though we are not active traders in the market, we are a large custodian and some of the people in our team responsible for gold observation sit on the LBMA Management Committee and the LBMA Physical Committee as observers. Thus we retain a significant engagement with the gold market via that route."

Hunt's presentation is posted at the LBMA Internet site here --

http://www.lbma.org.uk/assets/Speeches/Hunt%2020130930.pdf

-- and at GATA's Internet site here:

http://www.gata.org/files/LBMARomeConf-09-30-2013-HuntBankOfEngland.pdf

Thorn said the Bank of England holds gold "on behalf of our customers, who are Her Majesty's Treasury, central banks, and some LBMA members."

Of course having private customers and such a "significant engagement" in a commodity market puts a central bank in a peculiar position. After all, as Thorn notes, there are many gold vaults in Britain besides the Bank of England's. So it may be asked why the bank maintains such business at all -- unless, of course, gold is not a mere commodity but the world's natural and international money whose valuation central banks may very much want to control lest gold embarrass their own currencies.

CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.

* * *

Join GATA here:

Casey Research 2014 Summit
Hill Country Resort and Spa
San Antonio, Texas
Friday-Sunday, September 19-21, 2014

http://www.caseyresearch.com/summit/2014-fall

New Orleans Investment Conference
Hilton New Orleans Riverside Hotel
New Orleans, Louisiana
Wednesday-Saturday, October 22-25, 2014

https://jeffersoncompanies.com/new-orleans-investment-conference/home

* * *

Support GATA by purchasing DVDs of our London conference in August 2011 or our Dawson City conference in August 2006:

http://www.goldrush21.com/order.html

Or by purchasing a colorful GATA T-shirt:

http://gata.org/tshirts

Or a colorful poster of GATA's full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal on January 31, 2009:

http://gata.org/node/wallstreetjournal

Help keep GATA going

GATA is a civil rights and educational organization based in the United States and tax-exempt under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Its e-mail dispatches are free, and you can subscribe at:

http://www.gata.org

To contribute to GATA, please visit:

http://www.gata.org/node/16



ADVERTISEMENT

Safe and Private Allocated Bullion Storage In Singapore

Given the increasing risks in financial markets, it is more important than ever to own physical bullion coins and bars and to store them in the safest vaults in the world in the safest jurisdictions in the world. Gold advocates Jim Sinclair and Marc Faber have recommended Singapore.

Now, with GoldCore, you can own coins and bars in fully insured, segregated, and allocated accounts in Singapore with the ability to take delivery. Learn more by downloading GoldCore's Essential Guide To Storing Gold In Singapore:

http://info.goldcore.com/essential-guide-to-storing-gold-in-singapore

And for more information call Daniel or Sharon at +44 203 0869200 in the United Kingdom or at +1-302-635-1160 in the United States. Or email them at info@goldcore.com.