I sat down with Louis Cammarosano, smaulgld, to get his take on what we have reported over the past few weeks about Venezuela and Italy attempting to take control of their physical gold that is being held hostage by the ECB and Bank of England.
A big part of the conversation was centered around Romania being told they could not get their gold by their own National Bank of Romania along with the European Central Bank (ECB).
Under a last-minute amendment, the share of gold that can be deposited abroad was cut to 0% (from 5%). But the bill has a broader scope: under some of its provisions, BNR has to inform “no later than 20 days” about the occurrence of crisis situations “where the monetary stability, inflation target or macroeconomic policies are at risk”. BNR can’t fully accept the amendments to its Statute, Adrian Dumitrescu, a senior BNR expert, said during debates at the Chamber of Deputies, according to local Economica.net. Firstly, he argued that any change to its Statute requires “mandatory” consultation of the European Central Bank (ECB) and proper consideration of the opinion issued by the ECB. Secondly, Dumitrescu argues that the amendments are hindering BNR in its duty of managing the country’s gold reserves, which is a responsibility of the central banks according to the European Union Treaty. Source
Under a last-minute amendment, the share of gold that can be deposited abroad was cut to 0% (from 5%). But the bill has a broader scope: under some of its provisions, BNR has to inform “no later than 20 days” about the occurrence of crisis situations “where the monetary stability, inflation target or macroeconomic policies are at risk”.
BNR can’t fully accept the amendments to its Statute, Adrian Dumitrescu, a senior BNR expert, said during debates at the Chamber of Deputies, according to local Economica.net. Firstly, he argued that any change to its Statute requires “mandatory” consultation of the European Central Bank (ECB) and proper consideration of the opinion issued by the ECB. Secondly, Dumitrescu argues that the amendments are hindering BNR in its duty of managing the country’s gold reserves, which is a responsibility of the central banks according to the European Union Treaty. Source
Combine this with what happened with Venezuela and Italy just in the past 2-3 weeks with their gold in the same banks.
If we look on the other side of the world we see Italy’s Salvini going to blows with the European Central Bank and the Central Bank of Italy regarding Italy’s gold reserves. Salvini is making life for the central bankers very uncomfortable and is challenging the banks in ways they have never had to deal with. The thing is – the whole world is watching. Source
We detail what has happened,what is happening and speculate as to what could happen going forward. It’s a great conversation around a subject that has not been brought to the table – not the three countries shining a spot light on the gold.
