Austria sending auditors to check gold held by Bank of England

January last year Germany's central bank, the Bundesbank, said it will ship back home all 374 tonnes of gold it had stored with the Banque de France in Paris, as well as the 300 tonnes held in Manhattan by the US Federal Reserve, by 2020.

Fast forward a year and Buba, as the Federal Bank of Germany is sometimes referred to, has only managed to bring home a paltry 37 tonnes of gold.

And a mere 5 tonnes of that came from the US, the rest from Paris. The US Fed holds 45% of the total 3,396 tonnes German gold.

Now Austria, perhaps unnerved by Germany's experience with their bullion and mindful of Brown's Bottom, is sending a team of auditors to check on gold held by the Bank of England.

According to Goldreporter.de only 17% of Austria's 280 tonnes of gold reserves are held inside the European nation with the Bank of England holding the bulk or some 150 tonnes worth more than $6.2 billion.

Under public pressure the Austrian accountability office is sending a delegation verify bullion held in London vaults:

“I acknowledge the request. Any grocery store is obliged to do inventory once a year. It is the only way of getting rid of these unreasonable allegations”, Ewald Nowotny, Governor of the National Bank of Austria tells Trend.

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