But there is more: just a few hours ago, sources in the metals market London specialists in the subject corroborated the shipment -and the entry- of three additional tons of gold from Argentina in the month of July this year.
In fact, according to various publications, over the last few years the BCRA has already had some 37 tons of gold in London, which would be part of various swap operations used to obtain financing. The urgent fact is that the IMF itself would be endorsing these operations, since at the same time, and despite the swap carried out against delivery of the metal, it would enable it to be counted as part of the reserves.
Which banks usually handle gold in London: the swap
Needless to say, London is the largest financial centre for these matters. There are five financial institutions that specialise in handling precious metals and offer financing against delivery of the metal: HSBC, JP Morgan, Scotiabank, UBS, and ICBC Standard Bank. It is precisely these institutions that, in the absence of official records of entry into the country, often make the necessary registrations to use the metal as collateral.
As stated, just a few hours ago, British specialist Tyler Durden wrote that he was able to corroborate the shipment of three tons of gold from Argentina in the month of July. This amount was added to another, of the same nature, sent in the previous monthwhich had already been confirmed by Scope.
The data was also addressed by international metals analyst Jan Nieuwenhuijs, who said that, “most likely, the United Kingdom imported 3 tons (worth 150 million dollars) from the BCRA stocks in June, because as far as data from the British customs department is available, The country has never traded any amount of gold with Argentina before June of this year.”.
And he adds: “Normally, monetary gold (the one held by a central bank) is exempt from being disclosed in customs data, however, as in the case of the purchase of gold by the Chinese central bank in London, if the bank that operates this business, the “bullion banks”, are in charge of shipping and insurance, Metal does appear in international trade statistics”.
Gold shipments, reserves and what the IMF said
Nieuwenhuijs points out another important fact: at the end of June, the BCRA had informed the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that it was holding the same amount of gold as the previous month. Apparently, the BCRA has kept on its books the gold that has been given in swap, which is tolerated by the IMF. The weight of a central bank’s gold reserves, according to the IMF, can include “gold deposits and, if applicable, gold in the form of swaps.”
A few weeks ago, Scope He noted that, amidst judicial presentations and requests for information from opposition legislators, the shipment was confirmed by the highest authorities of the economic team led by Luis Caputo. On July 28, the Spanish newspaper El País also reported that part of Argentina’s international gold reserves had been transferred abroad.although President Javier Milei hinted that it could be used as collateral to obtain a bridge loan, what is essentially called a swap.
In a previous note that can be consulted here, Ámbito also mentioned that, cIn relation to the operations carried out only in June, the 3 tons (almost 96,500 troy ounces) of collateral in London represented less than 5% of the BCRA’s total gold reserves of 61.7 tons..
At the same time, it was pointed out that “there is always the risk that gold abroad could be blocked, as happened before the pandemic with 30 tons of Venezuela in the Bank of England (BoE), but it assumes that the BCRA lawyers carefully weighed all the pros and cons before approving the delivery of the gold to a bullion bank in London.”
A relevant fact to keep in mind is that, although there is no official information available on the purpose of the operation, there was no such information at other times either. For example, when the Cambiemos government also used just over 7 tons of gold reserves to make swaps and obtain a return. It is not usually made explicit, and only later do international statistics reflect the exit and re-entry of gold linked to the “swap”. In the Argentine case, the last time was in July and August 2023, when 7 tons left and entered, respectively.
Source: Ambito
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