Saturday, January 26, 2013

Even on Australia Day the RBA is happy for Pommies to hold 99.9% of their Gold

The RBA's gold scales sit dreaming of all the gold they have weighted in the past

On the eve of Australia Day I received a reply to my email to the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA). It seems even on Australia Day, and every other day for the foreseeable future, the RBA is willing to trust a bunch of bankers on a wet miserable little island off the coast of France, who have engaged in QE and are implicated in the LIBOR rigging scandal, to hold 99.9% of their gold. So much for the independent Australian spirit and patriotism.

My email dated 17 Jan 2013:

Good Morning Chris,

I imagine you are aware of the press release by the Bundesbank overnight that they would be withdrawing all of their Gold Reserves from Paris and drawing down on their holdings at the New York Fed.

Reference: http://tinyurl.com/ahsnjtl

Reason given for repatriating this Gold was explained by board member Carl-Ludwig Thiele:

"The two most important functions of the gold reserves are building confidence at home and may, within the shortest possible time to be able to exchange gold at gold trading centres abroad for foreign currencies"

In light of this news is the RBA considering repatriating some of the RBA's Gold Reserves from London to provide confidence at home whilst still having the liquidity that the London market provides?

RBA's reply dated 25 Jan 2013:

Greg

Thank you for your email.

The Bank does not have anything to add to the response provided to you on 19 December.

Regards

Chris Collins | Manager | Media & Public Relations Office
RESERVE BANK OF AUSTRALIA | 65 Martin Place, Sydney NSW 2000
p: +61 2 9551 9830 | f: +61 2 9551 8033 | w:
www.rba.gov.au

Text of the RBA's email response to me dated 19/12/12:

Thank you for your email.

As at end-June 2011 the Reserve Bank of Australia held 80 tonnes of gold in London Good Delivery bars. The Reserve Bank holds 99.9 per cent of its gold reserves in the United Kingdom at the Bank of England. The remaining 0.1 per cent is held at the Reserve Bank’s Head Office in Sydney.

London is a major global gold trading market and the Bank of England provides a secure and cost-effective storage location for central banks and market participants. The Reserve Bank has processes in place to ensure that the gold reserves are maintained appropriately. It is not considered necessary from management, security or operational perspectives to relocate the gold bars to a facility in Australia.

The Reserve Bank has reviewed its approach to releasing details about its management of the physical reserves of gold and decided to release the above information.

Please note that we answered your previous questions as a routine public enquiry. The FOI Act concerns itself with the release of documents, rather than answering questions, so a request must seek documents to be valid.

Regards
Chris Collins | Manager | Media & Public Relations Office
RESERVE BANK OF AUSTRALIA | 65 Martin Place, Sydney NSW 2000
p: +61 2 9551 9830 | f: +61 2 9551 8033 | w: 
www.rba.gov.au

2 comments:

  1. Start a petition! - this is serious folks ... Swiss almost ready to commence a referendum inspired by 90,000 signatures for the required 100,000 needed to instigate a referendum. The US feds sent the Germans away with a flea in their ear (and a 7 year wait) but if the Swiss are standing out there banging pots and pans as well, Australia definitely needs to repatriate its gold from BOE or admit we are still just a colony being told what to do and when by our masters in the City.

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  2. No need to worry - our Queen Elizabeth popped into the Bank Of England vaults the other day just to do a quick audit, it raining as usual there being nothing better to do. Conclusion was "there's plenty for everyone to share around so don't snatch".

    Meanwhile in Davos, the great and the good discuss what to do about the world tungsten shortage.......

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