-- Posted Friday, 2 September 2011 | | Disqus
Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:
Our friend R.M. in Ireland acted on GATA's appeal the other day to query his country's central bank about the status of its gold reserves. He wrote:
"Could you clarify a number of points on the gold holdings of the Central Bank of Ireland? Note 10 on Page 98 of the bank's 2010 annual report --
http://www.centralbank.ie/publications/Documents/2010%20Annual%20Report%...
-- says: 'Gold and gold receivables represent coin stocks held in the bank, together with gold bars held at the Bank of England.'
"Of the Central Bank of Ireland's bars held at the Bank of England, could you clarify if any of this holding is swapped or loaned out or has any other receivable status recorded against it, and, if so, what percentage? Additionally, is this held in an allocated account and can you provide a good bar list for the custody?
"Finally, in the Claims Equivalent to the Transfer of Foreign Reserves balance sheet item, it lists E638.836 million. Given that these are the Irish Central Bank's 'claims arising from the transfer of foreign reserve assets to the European Central Bank in accordance with the provisions of Article 30 of the European System of Central Banks statute' and that a number of transfers have been made in the last 12 years (Page 89, Section c-vii), what proportion of this E638.836 million is a gold component?"
The Central Bank of Ireland replied promptly, through its senior administrative officer for financial control:
"We received your query in connection with gold custody. Please find our response below.
"The notes to our accounts confirm the locations at which the Central Bank of Ireland maintains its gold holdings. The bank is not, however, in a position to provide further information, nor to outline its investment strategy in relation to the gold holdings.
"The bank transferred foreign currency assets to the European Central Bank in 1999 and in subsequent years up to the end of 2010, with one of the components being gold. The claim that the Central Bank of Ireland has on the ECB amounts to E638.836 million, as recorded in the accounts.
"Trusting this is of assistance to you."
Oh, yes, it's of wonderful assistance. It adds the Central Bank of Ireland to the long list of central banks that won't be candid about the national patrimony entrusted to them, the gold reserves. Are they being leased or otherwise used for surreptitious market intervention? Apparently the Irish gold reserves are not entirely secure, since the Central Bank of Ireland has an "investment strategy" for them. Does this "investment strategy" involve some disposition of the gold that helps suppress gold's price, so that certain government currencies might look better? Is this strategy in Ireland's interest, or that of some other country? Whatever this strategy is, why shouldn't the Irish people be allowed to know about it?
At least the Irish central bank's annual report hints at the answer to such questions, insofar as the report acknowledges that the Irish gold reserves, such as they are, are kept at the Bank of England, long the operational headquarters of the gold price suppression scheme.
Will the Irish people note the irony of the location of their gold reserves?
As the monetary metals are the currencies of the brotherhood of man, GATA is not one to aggravate national and ethnic grudges, and we have a special feeling for Britain, where we held our conference last month. But Ireland's independence from Britain has been an issue of great importance to Western civilization in recent centuries, regardless of whether that independence is considered to have been achieved in 1921, 1937, or 1949. While Ireland's gold reserves aren't much -- only six tonnes, according to the World Gold Council -- it's the principle of the thing, for any country that would be truly independent. Even now is there really no vault in the republic large enough to hold six tonnes? If not, Cromwell must be laughing -- if he's not burning.
CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
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-- Posted Friday, 2 September 2011 | Digg This Article
| Source: GoldSeek.com
