Profiles of Key Gold Vaults Around the World

Many topics in the world of gold are opaque and secretive, none more so than the famed gold vaults of the world’s major central banks and their bullion banking counterparts. BullionStar Gold University is now bringing transparency to this intriguing yet under-reported area by profiling the largest and most important of these gold vaults.

According to the vault owners and the information that they divulge, these gold vaults officially store over 16,500 tonnes of gold, which is approximately half of all reported central bank gold reserve holdings. That’s also nearly 10% of all the gold ever mined in the world. This in itself makes knowledge of these vaults important.

From the labyrinthine Bank of England gold vaults storing nearly 5,000 tonnes of gold in custody for over 70 central bank customers, to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s subterranean gold vaults housing nearly 6,000 tonnes of gold on behalf of 36 foreign central banks and the US Treasury, this BullionStar series brings together information about these vaults that has never before been documented in one place.

Where are the vaults located? Who are their customers? What type of gold bars are stored there? How are the vaults laid out? When were they constructed? These are just some of the questions covered in BullionStar’s Gold Vault series. Only on rare occasions have reporters, camera crews or other observers been allowed to access these vaults and document their layouts and contents. We have included a media section in the profiles where possible to point you to these sources.

Witnessing such large quantities of gold bars stored in one single place seems to create a profound and similar impact on the observers regardless of which vault they have visited.

“I’m speechless when exploring the Sacristy, , … you don’t see this every day” – Alberto Angel, reporter RAI, Italy

”It’s quite extraordinary” – Professor Martyn Poliakoff, visiting the Bank of England vaults

“you never get sick of the gold… it even puts a smile on our faces when we’re down there working with it” – Fed Vault Custodian, New York

“from a purely human perspective, we could see with our own eyes a quantity of precious metal that goes beyond an ordinary perception … I must say that it arouses feelings that are difficult to explain” –   Senator Giuseppe Vacciano, Italy

Why the observers have these powerful reactions to seeing such vast quantities of gold, we can’t say for sure, perhaps it’s because gold is money par excellence and the ultimate store of wealth, and that being close to this powerful and aesthetically pleasing element invokes a timeless sense of respect and wonder.

The BullionStar Gold University vault profiles series also covers the deep underground Banque de France gold vaults in Paris. Known as ‘La Souterraine’, home to over 90% of France’s 2,435 tonnes of gold, the Paris vaults also store gold bars on behalf of the Bundesbank and the International Monetary Fund. The series also visits the Banca d’Italia’s gold vaults, “La Sacrestia Oro", under the Banca d’Italia’s Palazzo Koch headquarters in Rome which hold 1,200 tonnes, or approximately half of Italy’s gold.

BullionStar Gold University also profiles the commercial gold vaults backing the London Gold Market, the London gold clearing system and the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) system. These vaults also house the gold behind the largest Gold ETFs in the world. Learn about JP Morgan’s gold vault deep underneath a JP Morgan Chase building off Fleet Street in the City of London, as well as the massive HSBC gold vault that at one stage stored over 1,300 tonnes of gold on behalf of the SPDR Gold Trust. Is this HSBC vault in the City of London between 2 former HSBC buildings, underneath a road leading to Southwark Bridge? London’s commercial vaults also include the Malca Amit gold vault storage facility adjacent to Heathrow Airport, and the G4S gold vault, built for Deutsche Bank but now said to be leased by Chinese bank ICBC Standard Bank, following Deutsche Bank’s withdrawal from the London Gold Market.

A knowledge of where these central bank and commercial vaults are located and their operating details is also critical, since, if there was ever a physical gold shortage or a crisis in the gold market, these central bank and LBMA bullion bank institutions owe it to the global financial community to prove that they are storing the gold they claim to store, in the locations they profess to store it in.