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The German Bundesbank decided to opt for full transparency of their gold reserves and their whereabouts since the second world war. Our details:
Extracts from a comment of the FT:
Most report, on a monthly basis, their gold reserves to the International Monetary Fund. But these data fall a long way short of full transparency. They tell us nothing about derivative positions in the gold market – for example gold loans, agreements for future sales or options transactions.They are open to the whims of whether individual countries decide to classify a chunk of gold as belonging to their “international reserves” or being held by some other state entity (such a as sovereign wealth fund).
In one document published on its website this month, the Bundesbank lists, for example, each one of its gold transactions since 1951.
In another, it details how much gold it has held in each of New York, London, Ottawa, Paris, Bern, Frankfurt and Basel since 1951, and how much it was lending to the market at any one time.
. It also shows that the German central bank halted all gold lending activity in 2008 when the financial crisis began – presumably because of concerns about the credit risk of the banks it was lending to.The historical lack of transparency among central banks is somewhat understandable. With 29,500 tonnes between them (a decade of global mine supply), they have the ability to disrupt the market significantly if their trades are too public. See, for example, the reaction to the UK’s announcement that it would sell a large part of its reserves in 1999.
But there is a difference between revealing your trading strategies to the world and disclosing simple facts about your reserves – such as their quantity, where they are held, whether they have been lent or swapped, and so forth – with a delay if need be.
That the Bundesbank has been nudged into this new-found transparency must be chalked up as a victory for the groups of investors – most prominent among them, the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee, or Gata – that have for years been asking central banks to reveal their activities.
If central banks wish to refute suggestions from such groups that their gold does not exist, or that they are scheming to manipulate prices, they could do worse than to follow the Bundesbank’s lead. (Source FT)
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The full extract movements among gold depositaries is here (click to expand):
