According to a press
release the management team of the Dutch central bank has requested to
investigate relocating the banknotes and gold vault that is
currently located in the basement of bank’s headquarter at the
Frederiksplein in Amsterdam.
In the press release we can read the reason for the investigation to
relocate the vault flows from preparations to renovate the building that
dates from 1968. While planning the renovation the subject to relocate the
vault was brought up as the burdens for securing the metal is currently felt
by all employees and visitors at the central bank’s headquarter. Storing
189.9 tonnes of gold at the Frederiksplein encompasses high security
standards for all employees working in the building while nearly none of them
have anything to do with the vault. In addition, whenever large batches of
banknotes are transported to or from the vault the security measures can be
complex in the center of Amsterdam. From this discomfort it’s considered
to relocate the vault.
In November 2014 De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) disclosed
to have repatriated 122.5 tonnes from the Federal Reserve Bank Of New York
(FRBNY), which brought the total amount of gold stored in Amsterdam to 189.9
tonnes and left an equal amount (189.9 tonnes) in New York. In London at the
Bank Of England DNB has stored 110.3 tonnes and in Ottawa, Canada, 122.5
tonnes are stored. In total Dutch official gold reserves stand at 612.5
tonnes.
From my perspective the official reason presented to relocate the gold can
be legitimate, but it can be a decoy as well. After studying film footage
shot in the DNB gold vault from October
2010, January 2012 and March 2014, all from before
the repatriation in November 2014, we must conclude the vault compartment we
can see is sufficiently large to hold 67.4 tonnes, but would be very tight to
hold 189.9 tonnes. Surely there are other compartments in the vault, as we
can see in the videos, though I’m not sure if all areas have been
designed to carry exceptional large tonnages of gold. The soil in
Amsterdam is
known for largely consisting of clay, as opposed to the bedrock in
Manhattan, this can be problematic for storing gold. There is a possibility
the vault in Amsterdam is not suited to store 189.9 tonnes of gold, or more
if DNB would ever decide to repatriate additional gold from the US, UK or
Canada.
When I called DNB today I was directed to a spokesman, Martijn Pols, whom
I asked when a final decision would be made on the vault relocation and
whether they have any new locations in mind. I was told the Dutch
central bank will come to a final conclusion by the end of this
year and no new locations are on table as of yet. While talking to this
gentleman I also took the opportunity to ask about the gold bar list.
On 26 September 2015 I visited a conference in Rotterdam, the Netherlands,
called Reinvent Money.
One of the speakers was Jacob
De Haan from DNB’s Economics and Research Division – you can watch
his presentation by clicking here. In his
presentation De Haan repeatedly talked about the importance of transparency
in central banking. These statements raised my eyebrows, as I’ve submitted
a FOIA request at DNB in 2013 to ask for all
correspondence between DNB and other central banks in the past 45 years
with respect to its monetary gold, which was not honoured. From my experience
DNB was anything but transparent.
After the presentation I approached De Haan and asked, if transparency is
so important to DNB, why it has never published its gold bar list – an act of
transparency that could be accomplished within minutes. De Haan offered me he
would look into that. He gave me his email address and we agreed to stay in
touch.
26 September 2015 at the Reinvent Money conference.
On the left is Jacob De Haan, on the right in the orange sweater is me.
The next day I send De Haan an extensive email explicating my request at
DNB to publish the gold bar list of the Dutch official gold reserves in excel
format. I wrote him it wouldn’t take DNB any effort, as I assumed the bar
list is already in their possession. De Haan never replied to me over email,
so I called his office in December 2015 to ask what the status was of my
request. De Haan’s secretary answered my inquiry was not rejected but still
being processed.
Today, when I asked DNB’s spokesman over the phone about the bar list he
answered the subject is still being discussed internal, he even confirmed De
Haan was involved in this matter. Currently DNB is considering to
release the document while carefully weighing al pros and cons, I was told.
In the conversation Pols stated DNB knows the German central bank released
a bar list in October 2015 and there was a wish in Amsterdam to mutually
harmonize this policy. I added that if DNB would go ahead with its list
their action would only be credible if the list would be complete, including
all refinery brands, refinery bar numbers and year of manufacturing, in
contrast to the
incomplete list the Germans published. Pols was aware of the format the
Germans had chosen and took note of my comment. An ensuing question from my
side what’s holding back DNB in releasing the list could not be clearly
answered.
