Germany's Deutsche Bank refuses delivery of gold to its customers

Berlin : It has come to the fore that the leading bank of Germany, ‘Deutsche Bank’ has refused to deliver physical gold to its customers on demand. This news has caused a stir in Germany and claims are being made that the condition of the overall banking sector in Germany, including Deutsche Bank, is not healthy. Two months back, Deutsche Bank had decided to close down nearly 200 of its branches in the country.

‘Xetra-Gold’, a company listed in the German Stock Exchange, had issued Gold Bonds for sale. During the sale, it was clearly stated that if the investors demand physical gold, then it shall be made practically available. It was also informed that Deutsche Bank was the Sponsor for this endeavour.

It was also noted in the statement submitted by ‘Xetra-Gold’ that the amount collected through the bonds, will be utilised to purchase physical gold and that the physical gold has been kept in the vault of the company ‘Clearstream Banking AG’ in Frankfurt. Additionally, it was also claimed that a huge quantity of gold was deposited with Umicore AG & Co.

But now the customers, who are asking for physical gold, are being refused the same, reports a website ‘GodmodeTrader’ in its news report. It has been claimed in the news report that one of its readers, who had invested in the Gold Bonds issued by ‘Xetra Gold’, was refused physical gold, when he asked for it.

When contacted in this context, Deutsche Bank responded by saying that this service was no longer available and the decision was taken as a part of the ‘Business Policy’. The website ‘GodmodeTraders’ has expressed doubts whether, like Deutsche Bank, other banks also are actually delivering physical gold or not.

As per the information provided by ‘Xetra-Gold’, it owns 85 tons of gold and its total assets amount to €3.5 billion. At the same time, it has come to light that till date, around 900 requests asking for physical gold from ‘Xetra Gold’, have been registered and for this purpose, approximately 4 tons of gold had to be given. In spite of this, such an incident of physical gold being refused to a customer, should happen, is said to be surprising. Few analysts have expressed doubts over the claims of physical gold being actually available with the banks.

As per a report of the ‘World Gold Council’, Germany ranks 2nd in the world, in the list of countries owning maximum gold deposits. It is said that Germany currently owns 3,381 tons of gold. This gold has been kept in the German city of Frankfurt, in New York in the United States, in London, the capital of Britain and in Paris, the capital of France. It is also said that in the last 2 years, Germany has brought back 177 tons of gold from Paris and 189 tons of gold from New York.