Written by Jeff Nielson Friday, 09 April 2010 10:46
Articles & Blogs - Canadian Commentary
Thanks to several Bullion Bulls members for passing along the link to another intriguing issue relating to the legitimacy of the global gold (and silver) market. A follow-up interview from the “King World News” site took aim at the bullion-storage of Bank of Nova Scotia – or more particularly, what they weren't storing: silver.
To provide the context to readers who haven't already absorbed all the relevant issues, there are two other “stories” - one old, one new – which closely relate to the revelations from the Bank of Nova Scotia's bullion-vault.
The first item was Morgan Stanley's bullion-fraud: where it only pretended to buy-and-store bullion for its own clients. Regular readers will already be familiar with this news, as I covered it in July of 2009 (see “Morgan Stanley pay damages for Precious Metals Fraud”). The other blockbuster news that ties in to this issue was the careless revelation by Jeffrey Christian of the CPM Group – yet another Goldman Sachs Stooge actively involved in the banksters' nefarious deeds in the precious metals market.
During the recent CFTC hearings, Christian blurted out that “the gold market was a hundred times the size” of the actual amount of “physical” bullion held by the (so-called) “bullion banks”. While I have long alleged that the banksters didn't have sufficient bullion to cover their gigantic “short” positions and their equally gigantic “custodian agreements” with the fraudulent, “bullion-ETF's” (most notably, GLD and SLV), the revelation that the banksters had leveraged their real bullion by (at least) 100:1 was a shock to everyone.
This sets the stage for the “King” interview with Harvey and Lenny Organ (father and son) along with Adrian Douglas – one of GATA's valiant directors. As a last detail, the Bank of Nova Scotia operates the primary bullion-storage vault for all of Canada and is the Canadian bank which is most active in the infamous “gold-trading” of the anti-gold banking cabal, which is rapidly losing its “grip” on this market, after a quarter century of ruthless price-fixing.
Lenny Organ had been repeatedly requesting access to the Bank of Nova Scotia's bullion vault, in order to verify his own, personal holdings – which he had chosen to buy and store through that bank. He finally obtained his invitation in September 2008, just before the most-massive spike in bullion-buying in decades (after the Wall Street-induced “crash” of 2008).
What he saw inside that vault was that (especially for silver) the “cupboards were bare”. Theentire “working supply” of silver for the BNS was sixty 1,000 oz bars, with each of those bars equaling roughly $15,000 of silver apiece (at 2008 prices). In other words, the total amount of bullion held by the Bank of Nova Scotia (including what it was willing/able to sell) was worth less than $1 million.
Upon seeing that the bank didn't even hold their own bullion (which they paying “storage fees” for), the Organs demanded that BNS produce (and then store) the bullion which italready claimed to hold for the Organs. Incredibly, the BNS demanded additional storage fees and still required more than six weeks to make good on their contractual obligations.
Apart from the enormous time-lag for one of the world's largest bullion-banks to produce the bullion it was already contractually obligated to store, it appears that the banksters have two sets of storage rates for its “bullion customers”. There is the “regular” rate it charges forchumps – i.e. those clients for whom (like Morgan Stanley) the Bank of Nova Scotia onlypretended to buy and hold bullion, and a second fee structure for those clients who insistedthat the bank buy-and-hold real bullion on their behalf.
This is a close parallel to the bullion-ETF market, where investors can invest in the fraud-funds: GLD and SLV, and pay near-zero fees to have these funds store paper on behalf of its unit-holders; or, you can pay much higher management fees to funds like the “Central Funds” group of Canadian bullion-ETF's, or the new, physical gold “trust” from Sprott Asset Management – and know that you're holding real bullion. However, I plan on saying much more about that market in an upcoming commentary.
The gold-holdings of the BNS were not quite as sparse. There was roughly 100,000 ounces of gold storage, with a market value (at that time) of less than $100 million. However, as Adrian Douglas quickly pointed out in the interview, the Royal Canadian Mint had (by itself) sold more than a billion dollars of gold, in 2008 alone. Thus, when Canada's largest “bullion bank” has a cumulative total of bullion (acquired over years and decades) that amounts to much less than 10% of Canadian demand for one year, you don't have to be Sherlock Holmes to conclude we are witnessing yet more bankster bullion-fraud.
The obvious advice to any and all Canadians who think that the BNS is storing bullion on their behalf is to immediately demand to see your bullion, to immediately convert your BNS gold (and silver) “certificates” into real bullion, and then to personally make arrangements to store your own bullion – where your own banker can't sell it to someone else.
One has to wonder if we are about to witness our own “class action suit” on bullion-fraud, similar to when Morgan Stanley was sued in 2005, or perhaps a wave of class-action suits. In the 100:1 world of bullion-leverage in which the banksters dwell, those bank clients (all over the world) who think they own bullion are most likely only holding paper. Indeed, the most-hilarious moment in the “King” interview was Adrian Douglas' observation that the “gold certificates” of the BNS state they are “backed by the assets” of the BNS – but make no claim to actually “back” those certificates with any bullion, at all.
However, while the certificates themselves make no reference to representing actual bullion, the storage contracts from the BNS explicitly discuss fees relating to the buying/selling (and holding) of “metal”. Thus, assuming that the BNS “bullion dealers” understand the distinction between “metal” and “paper”, and assuming that any/every judge is also capable of making that distinction, the case of fraud against the BNS is “open and shut”.
Gold-sector veterans like Jim Sinclair have been urging people (in the strongest terms) tohold their own bullion. Yes, it is somewhat inconvenient and/or costly, but investors have a very clear choice, thanks to the inherent dishonesty of global bankers in dealing in bullion: you can bear with the inconvenience of storing your own bullion, or enjoy all the “convenience” of having bankers charging you to store paper.
As Bullion Bulls members have heard on this site many times in the past, the only “paper” relating to the gold and silver market which investors should hold are the shares of quality gold and silver miners, or they can seek-out the small minority of bullion-ETF's (and related vehicles) which do hold real bullion, but also charge significant management fees.
There are some more, juicy anecdotes in the interview, so I recommend that those who have not listened to it take the time to do so. If nothing else, it helps to verify that the assertions of gold commentators (like myself) are accurately representing the facts which have been dug-up in recent weeks.
In the meantime, while you won't read about any of these events in any “mainstream” media outlet, awareness among the investing public is clearly rising rapidly. This can be seen in the comments which are made any/every time some branch of the propaganda-machine publishes more precious metals “spam”. Articles recommending fraud-funds like GLD and SLV are being greeted with open derision by readers.
While clearly these individuals represent the more sophisticated segment of precious metals investors, their numbers appear to be enough of a “critical mass” to spread the word on what is really taking place in the precious metals market, in general, and insidebankster-vaults – in particular
The Bank of Nova Scotia (in French, Banque de Nouvelle-Écosse, and commonly Scotiabankin English and Banque Scotia in French) is the third largest bank in Canada by deposits andmarket capitalization. The bank was founded in 1832 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and its primary corporate offices are located in Toronto, Ontario. The company ranks at number 120 on the Forbes Global 2000 listing.[1] Founded in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1832, under the name of the Bank of Nova Scotia, to facilitate the trans-Atlantic trade of the time.[2] The bank launched its branch banking system by opening inWindsor, Nova Scotia. The expansion was limited to the Maritime Provinces until 1882, when the bank moved west by opening a branch in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The Manitoba branch later closed but the experience of doing business in a grain-town encouraged the Bank to expand into the American Midwest, including Minneapolis in 1885 and Chicago in 1892.[2] Scotiabank also operates locations throughout Mexico, after the purchase of the Mexican bankInverlat, and deals in all aspects of personal banking, business banking, and property and auto loans. By 1900, The Bank of Nova Scotia had opened 38 branches across Canada, the United States andJamaica. In Canada, the Bank was represented in all of the Maritime Provinces, Quebec, Ontarioand Manitoba. In 1892, the Bank of Nova Scotia became the first Canadian bank to establish inNewfoundland – 55 years before the dominion joined Confederation. In its early expansion the bank clearly followed trade and its customers' business - such as the trade of sugar, rum, and fish in Jamaica[2] - rather than pursuing a strategy of expansion into international financial centres. Scotiabank is a member of the Global ATM Alliance, a joint venture of several major international banks that allows customers of the banks to use their ATM card or check card at another bank within the Global ATM Alliance with no fees when traveling internationally. Other participating banks are Barclays (United Kingdom), Bank of America (United States), BNP Paribas (France), China Construction Bank (China), Deutsche Bank (Germany), Santander Serfin (Mexico) and Westpac (Australia and New Zealand).[3] The Bank has amalgamated with several other Canadian financial institutions through the years:[2] Many former branches of Montreal Trust and National Trust were rebranded "Scotiabank & Trust", and continue to operate as such. Scotiabank has four divisions: As of 2009, Scotiabank services over 12.5 million customers and has over 500 billion dollars in assets. The bank employs over 69,000 employees all over the globe including: Europe, Asia,Latin America and the Caribbean. Scotiabank is Canada's most international bank with over 2000 branches in some 50 countries. As in the past, in 2009 some of the top management at Scotiabank announced a plan that it would once again play a part in general infrastructural development in the countries where it operates.[4] Current members of the board of directors of Scotiabank are:[21] Ronald A. Brenneman, C.J. Chen, N. Ashleigh Everett, John Kerr, Michael Kirby, Laurent Lemaire, John T. Mayberry, Thomas O'Neill, Elizabeth Parr-Johnston, Alexis Rovzar de la Torre, Indira Samarasekera, Arthur Scace, Allan Shaw, Paul Sobey, Barbara Thomas, and Richard E. Waugh. Former members of the board include: Peter Godsoe (former President and CEO of Scotiabank) and Cedric Ritchie (Former Chairman). Current members of the Executive Management Team are:[22] Scotiabank has unionized relationships with employees in a number of locations around the world.[23] In Canada, the sole unionized workplace is the domestic banking branch in Deep River, Ontario. BNS is a member of the Canadian Bankers Association (CBA) and registered member with the Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation (CDIC), a federal agency insuring deposits at all of Canada's chartered banks. It is also a member of: Bank of Nova Scotia. 1932. The Bank of Nova Scotia, 1831-1932. Halifax: Bank of Nova Scotia. Chief Executive Officer: Richard E. Waugh | FY 2007 Statistics: Net income: $4.0 billion CAD (▲9%) | Market capitalization: $48.8 billion CAD |Assets: $411.5 billion CAD | Employees: 62,143 | Stock symbols: TSX: BNS NYSE: BNS | Website: www.scotiabank.com The London bullion market is a wholesale over-the-counter market for the trading of gold and silver. Trading is conducted amongst members of the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA), loosely overseen by the Bank of England. Most of the members are major international banks or bullion dealers and refiners. Internationally, gold is traded primarily via over-the-counter (OTC) transactions with limited amounts trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) and Tokyo Commodity Exchange (TOCOM). These forward contracts are known as gold futures contracts. Spot gold is traded for settlement two business days following the trade date, with a business day defined as a day when both the New York and London markets are open for business. Unlike many commodity markets, the forward market for gold is driven by spot prices and interest ratedifferentials, similar to foreign exchange markets, rather than underlying supply and demand dynamics. This is because gold, like currencies, is borrowed and lent by central banks and in the interbank market. Because interest rates for gold tend to be lower than US domestic interest rates--it encourages gold borrowings so that central banks can earn interest on their large gold holdings--except in special circumstances the gold market tends to be in contango, i.e. the forward price of gold is higher than the spot price. Historically this has made it an attractive market for forward sales by gold producers and contributed to an active and relatively liquid derivatives market. The bulk of global trading in gold and silver is conducted on the over-the-counter (OTC) market. London is by far the largest global centre for OTC transactions followed by New York, Zurich, and Tokyo. Exchange-based trading has grown in recent years with Comex in New York and Tocom in Tokyo generating most of the activity. Gold is also traded in forms of securities, such as exchange-traded funds (ETFs), on the London, New York, Johannesburg, and Australian stock exchanges. Although the physical market for gold and silver is distributed globally, most wholesale OTC trades are cleared through London. The average daily volume of gold and silver cleared at the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) in November 2008 was 18.3 million ounces (worth $13.9 billion) and 107.6 million ounces (worth $1.1 billion) respectively. This means that an amount equal to the annual gold mine production was cleared at the LBMA every 4.4 days, and to the annual silver production every 6.2 days.[1]. Clearing data substantially understates the true amount of gold traded due to the netting of trades in the calculation of Clearing Statistics. Actual turnover is perhaps 4 [2] times greater than clearing turnover so that 2008 turnover is estimated as 2,134 tonnes [2]. Allocated Accounts are accounts held by dealers in clients’ names on which are maintained balances of uniquely identifiable bars, plates or ingots of metal ‘allocated’ to a specific customer and segregated from other metal held in the vault. The client has full title to this metal with the dealer holding it on the client’s behalf as custodian. To avoid any doubt, metal in an allocated account does not form part of a precious metal dealer’s assets. [3]. Unallocated Accounts represent the most popular way of trading, settling and holding gold, silver, platinum and palladium. Transactions may be settled by credits or debits to the account while the balance represents the indebtedness between the two parties. Credit balances on the account do not entitle the creditor to specific bars of gold or silver or plates or ingots of platinum or palladium but are backed by the general stock of the precious metal dealer with whom the account is held. The client in this scenario is an unsecured creditor. [3] The total quantity of unallocated gold is estimated to be 15,000 tonnes at the end of 2008[4] which supports the 2,134 tonnes on average of spot gold trade through London every day representing 14.2% of the pool. This compares to average daily turnover in UK equities of between 0.34% and 0.63% for the 12 months ending September 2009 [4]. While members of the LBMA provide no information on the backing for unallocated gold the improbably high turnover is suggestive they are operating a fractional reserve system where unallocated accounts are only partially backed by physical gold. Similarly to a bank run this makes LBMA unallocated gold accounts susceptible to loss if a sufficient number of market participants request delivery of physical bullion. The London bullion market is distinct from the London Metal Exchange (LME). The latter is the futures exchange with the world's largest market in options, and futures contracts on base and other metals.Scotiabank
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bank of Nova Scotia
Banque de Nouvelle-Écosse
Type Public
TSX: BNS
NYSE: BNSIndustry Financial services Founded Halifax, Nova Scotia, 1832 Headquarters Toronto, Ontario, Canada Key people Richard E. Waugh,
chief executive officerRevenue $14.5 billion CAD (2009) Net income ▲ $3.5 billion CAD (2009) Total assets $496.5 billion CAD (2009) Employees 67,802 (Full-time equivalent, 2009) Website scotiabank.com Contents
[hide][edit]History
[edit]Early international expansion
[edit]Mergers
Bank Year established Year of amalgamation Union Bank of PEI Summerside Bank Bank of New Brunswick Metropolitan Bank of Canada The Bank of Ottawa Montreal Trust National Trust Inverlat (Mexico) National Bank of Greece (Canada) Banco Wiesse Sudameris (Peru) Banco Sudamericano (Peru) [edit]Operating Units
[edit]Corporate sponsorship and branding
[edit]Sports
[edit]Culture
[edit]Recent events
[edit]Awards
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[edit]Executive Officers
[edit]Unionization
[edit]Membership
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[edit]See also
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Scotiabank [edit]References
[edit]External links
Bank of Nova Scotia Major brands by financial service Master: Scotia | Financial group: Scotiabank Group | Canadian banking: Scotiabank | International banking: Scotiabank International |Canadian mutual funds: Scotia Mutual Funds | Canadian brokerage: ScotiaMcLeod | Canadian insurance: Scotia Insurance | Capital markets:Scotia Capital [show] [show] 
S&P/TSX 60 companies of Canada (January 8, 2010)London bullion market
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article needs additional citations for verification.
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.(March 2009)Contents
[hide][edit]Gold trading
[edit]Market size
[edit]Account Types
[edit]Allocated Accounts
[edit]Unallocated Accounts
[edit]Unallocated Risks
[edit]Other London markets
[edit]See also
[edit]References
[edit]External links
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