Germany to bring gold home
2013-01-16 20:05
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Frankfurt - Germany's central bank is hauling home tens
of thousands of gold bars currently stored in the US and France, in a high-security
operation spread over eight years.
All 374 tons of German gold held in Paris vaults will be
moved back to the Bundesbank's vaults in Frankfurt by 2020, the bank said on Wednesday.
A further 300 tons of gold stored in New York will also be brought back.
In total, the shipments are worth $36bn at current market
prices and represent about 19% of Germany's gold reserves - the world's second-largest
after the United States.
Once the shipment is complete, Frankfurt will hold half
of Germany's 3 400 tons of reserve gold - currently worth about $183bn - with
New York retaining 37% and London storing 13%.
But don't expect the Bundesbank to reveal how it's going
to keep the valuable cargo safe on its way back to Germany - especially after
the stunning raid of a Berlin bank earlier this week in which burglars tunnelled
30m to reach the safety deposit room.
"For security reasons we can't discuss that, partly
to protect the gold, partly to protect the staff that will be carrying out the
transfer," said spokesperson Moritz August Raasch.
"But of course since we transport large sums of
money around Germany every day, we've got a certain amount of experience with
this."
During the Cold War, Germany kept most of its gold abroad
for fear it could fall into the hands of the Soviet Union if the country was
invaded.
Another reason was
that it's easier to swap the reserves for foreign currency in London, Paris and
New York, where gold is traded.
Since France, like Germany, switched to the euro more
than a decade ago, storing gold in Paris was no longer necessary, the
Bundesbank said.
The move follows criticism last year from Germany's
independent Federal Auditors' Office, which concluded that the central bank
failed to properly oversee its gold. The auditor suggested the central bank
should carry out regular inspections of the gold held abroad.
The auditors' report stunned Germany, where the
Bundesbank routinely tops polls of the nation's most trusted institutions.
The central bank was taken aback and maintained it didn't
see the need for more scrutiny in overseeing the reserves, saying "there
is no doubt about the integrity of the foreign storage sites."
But several politicians jumped on the issue and called
for some of the reserves to be repatriated.
The Bundesbank isn't taking any chances should anything
happen to the gold on its way back to Frankfurt.
"Of course the transports are insured," Raasch
told AP.
- AP
