GLOBAL PRIVATE BANKING, ASSET PROTECTION, WEALTH MANAGEMENT: Gold Reserve

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A gold reserve is the gold held by a central bank or nation intended as a store of value and as a guarantee to redeem promises to pay depositors, note holders (e.g., paper money), or trading peers, or to secure a currency.

Today, gold reserves are almost exclusively, albeit rarely, used in the settlement of international transactions.^{[citation needed]}

At the end of 2004, central banks and investment funds held 19% of all above-ground gold as bank reserve assets.^[1]

It has been estimated that all the gold mined by the end of 2009 totaled 165,000 tonnes.^[2] At a price of US$1000/oz., exceeded in 2008 and 2009, one tonne of gold has a value of approx. US$32.15 million. The total value of all gold ever mined would exceed US$5 trillion at that valuation.^{[note 1]}

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[edit]IMF gold holdings

As of June 2009, the International Monetary Fund held 3,217 tonnes (103.4 million oz.) of gold,^[3]^[4] which had been constant for several years. In Fall 2009, the IMF announced that it will sell one eighth of its holdings, a maximum of 12,965,649 fine troy ounces (403.3 tonnes) based on a new income model agreed upon in April 2008, and subsequently announced the sale of 200 tonnes to India,^[5] 10 tonnes to Sri Lanka^[6], and 2 tonnes to the Bank of Mauritius.^[7] These gold sales were conducted in stages at prevailing market prices.

The IMF maintains an internal book value of its gold that is far below market value. In 2000, this book value was SDR 35, or about US$47 per troy ounce.^[8] An attempt to revalue the gold reserve to today's value has met resistance for different reasons. For example, Canada is against the idea of revaluing the reserve, as it may be a prelude to selling the gold on the open market and therefore depressing gold prices.^[9]

[edit]Officially reported gold holdings

The International Monetary Fund regularly maintains statistics of national assets as reported by various countries. This data is used by the World Gold Council to periodically rank and report the gold holding of countries and official organizations.^[10]

The following table reports the results ranked by their December 2009 holdings. The gold listed for each of the countries in the table may not be physically stored in the country listed, as central banks generally have not allowed independent audits of their reserves.

World official gold holding (December 2009)^[10]
Rank	Country/Organization	Gold (tonnes)	Gold's share of national forex reserves (%)^[10]
1	Eurozone	10,856.9	5%
2	United States	8,133.5	68.7%
3	Germany	3,407.6	64.6%
4	International Monetary Fund	3,005.3	-
5	Italy	2,451.8	63.4%
6	France	2,435.4	64.2%
7	China	1,054.0^[11]	1.5%
8	Switzerland	1,040.1	28.8%
9	Japan	765.2	2.4%
10	Netherlands	612.5	51.7%
11	Russia	607.7^[12]	4.7%
12	India	557.7^[5]	6.4%
13	European Central Bank	501.4	19.6%
14	Taiwan	423.6	4.1%
15	Portugal	382.5	83.8%
16	Venezuela	356.4	35.7%
17	United Kingdom	310.3	15.2%
18	Lebanon	286.8	26.5%
19	Spain	281.6	34.6%
20	Austria	280.0	52.7%
21	Belgium	227.5	31.8%
22	Algeria	173.6	3.8%
23	Philippines	154.7	12.1%
24	Libya	143.8	4.6%
25	Saudi Arabia	143.0	10.2%
26	Singapore	127.4	2.3%
27	Sweden	125.7	8.6%
28	South Africa	124.8	10.5%
29	Bank for International Settlements	120.0	-
30	Turkey	116.1	5.2%
31	Greece	112.4	71.5%
32	Romania	103.7	7.4%
33	Poland	102.9	4.4%
34	Thailand	84.0	2.1%
35	Australia	79.9	6.0%
36	Kuwait	79.0	11.4%
37	Egypt	75.6	7.4%
38	Kazakhstan	74.5	12.0%
39	Indonesia	73.1	3.9%
40	Denmark	66.5	2.8%
41	Pakistan	65.4	15.8%
42	Argentina	54.7	3.7%
43	Finland	49.1	15.1%
44	Bulgaria	39.9	7.1%
45	West African Economic and Monetary Union	36.5	9.9%
46	Malaysia	36.4	1.3%
47	Peru	34.7	3.6%
48	Brazil	33.6	0.5%
49	Slovakia	31.8	60.3%
50	Bolivia	28.3	11.0%
51	Belarus	28.3	23.1%
52	Ukraine	26.9	3.2%
53	Ecuador	26.3	19.1%
54	Syria	25.8	-
55	Morocco	22.0	3.1%
56	Nigeria	21.4	1.5%
57	Sri Lanka	15.3^[6]	22.3%
58	South Korea	14.4	0.2%
59	Cyprus	13.9	38.7%
60	Netherlands Antilles	13.1	33.1%
61	Serbia	13.0	3.1%
62	Czech Republic	12.9	1.0%
63	Jordan	12.8	3.7%
64	Cambodia	12.4	12.8%
65	Qatar	12.4	2.4%
66	Mexico	8.8	0.3%
67	Latvia	7.7	3.9%
68	El Salvador	7.3	7.9%
69	Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa	7.1	1.6%
70	Guatemala	6.9	4.5%
71	Colombia	6.9	0.9%
72	Macedonia	6.8	9.9%
73	Tunisia	6.8	2.1%
74	Iraq	5.9	0.4%
75	Lithuania	5.8	2.3%
76	Ireland	5.5	8.4%
77	Mauritius	3.9^[7]	5.6%
78	Bangladesh	3.5	1.3%
79	Canada	3.4	0.2%
80	Slovenia	3.2	9.7%
81	Aruba	3.1	15.8%
82	Hungary	3.1	0.2%
83	Mozambique	2.7	4.4%
84	Kyrgyzstan	2.6	5.7%
85	Luxembourg	2.3	9.4%
86	Tajikistan	2.2	-
87	Hong Kong	2.1	0.0%
88	Iceland	2.0	1.9%
89	Papua New Guinea	2.0	2.7%
90	Trinidad and Tobago	1.9	0.7%
91	Suriname	1.7	7.6%
92	Albania	1.6	2.1%
93	Yemen	1.6	0.7%
94	Bosnia and Herzegovina	1.2
95	Cameroon	0.9	0.9%
96	Honduras	0.7	0.9%
97	Paraguay	0.7	0.6%
98	Dominican Republic	0.6	0.8%
99	Gabon	0.4	0.7%
100	Malawi	0.4	4.3%
101	Malta	0.4	2.2%
102	Central African Republic	0.3	8.1%
103	Chad	0.3	1.4%
104	Republic of the Congo	0.3	0.3%
105	Uruguay	0.3	0.1%
106	Fiji	0.2	-
107	Estonia	0.2	0.2%
108	Chile	0.2	0.0%
109	Costa Rica	0.1	0.1%

[edit]Privately held gold

As of October 2009, gold exchange-traded funds held 1,750 tonnes of gold for private and institutional investors.^[13]

Gold Holdings Corp. a publicly listed gold company estimates that the amount of in-ground verified gold resources currently controlled by publicly traded gold mining companies is roughly 50,000 tonnes.^[14]

Privately held gold
Rank	Organization	Gold (Tonnes)	Reference
1	SPDR Gold Trust	1,104.0	^[15]
2	iShares Gold Trust	66.9	^[16]
3	Central Fund of Canada	30.2	^[17]
4	BullionVault (storage)	19.17	^[18]
5	GoldMoney (storage)	14.79	^[19]